The Infamous Irksome Blonde
by FuzzGoat
Summary: You'd think growing up as a widely hated child, then working your ass off just to get people to like you, and then saving those same people from crazy old men and even crazier older monsters would be enough for fate to give you a time-out and let you be. But being fate's personal favourite toilet, Naruto probably won't be getting flushed out of this mess anytime soon.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey there. Welcome to my story. **

**If you're reading this for the first time, feel free to go on ahead and let me know if you enjoy it. If you're revisiting, then this is not the chapter you read the previous time. I've edited and refined the original chapter, obviously with aid from to2llyuntraceable.**

**The word count has almost been been tripled, and various holes and ditches and issues with the original chapter have been addressed. All in all, this should be a much better read this time around. I do recommend re-reading though, there have been some important additions.**

* * *

New York City. The heart of the Western Civilization. It comprises of five boroughs sitting where the Hudson River meets the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of approximately 8.6 million, it is the most populated city of the United States. A global power city, New York City has been described as the cultural, financial, and media capital of the world.

Or that is what Wikipedia will tell you.

What it won't tell you, however, is that New York City is in fact home to the most powerful beings of the dimension. It also won't tell you that these beings are the governing forces of the world, or simply, Gods.

Yes, you read it right. 'Gods', not 'God'. There is no single god; in fact, there are over 3142 gods and goddesses. However, 3130 out of these 3142 gods don't get much screen time, it's the 12 major gods that steal the show. The Twelve Olympians.

And now coming back to the 8.6 million people who reside in the same city as these gods. Most of these morons live on their fragile human lives without having any idea of the existence of these beings. Even though everyone has heard of Greek Gods: the flashing, booming Zeus, the dark, reclusive Hades, yet most don't know that they actually exist. And rightly so.

Imagine the global chaos that would suddenly erupt when one day people wake up to see twelve divine beings claiming to have control over the entire Earth and the elements that are fundamental in how things go on every day. Not exactly an ideal situation, is it?

So the Gods keep existing in secrecy.

Or do they really?

In the countless decades that these powerful beings have ruled over the planet, they've left certain impressions, their own marks and have substantially influenced the development of humanity. It is hard to imagine what the Earth would've been like if the Olympians and other minor gods hadn't played a role in keeping the broken-bicycle known as humanity going. Probably better off, but we won't talk about that.

So for these reasons, people keep on living in the dark, without having any knowledge of the natural, or rather, supernatural forces that govern them.

And a part of these 8.6 million morons, was one young blonde-haired man.

* * *

He walked the streets of Fifth Avenue, Manhattan, without any idea of the existence of these beings that we have been discussing about.

A bag was slung over his shoulders, and he was wearing a simple black t-shirt and blue denim jeans that were particularly tight around his ass. A wonderful and muscular ass, it should be mentioned. In fact, it was this wonderful ass combined with his equally wonderfully attractive looks, and weird fox-like whiskers on his face, that got him the attention of a lot of women, who were giving him lusty stares.

This was nothing new to one Naruto Namikaze, the owner of the fine ass and attractive looks. Neither was walking down the streets of Fifth Avenue every day back from his college and staring at the brightly lit skyscraper with a spire extending so far above the other buildings that it seemed to penetrate the sky itself.

The seat of Mount Olympus, known to Naruto as the Empire State Building and nothing more.

Naruto had surely changed over the years. Gone was once the grinning, hyperactive orange-clad ninja who was as positive as a proton with an attitude that was as bright as the sun. Replacing him was this tall, lean man wearing dark clothes and an expression that seemed uncaring, almost apathetic to the events happening around him.

He had grown his hair out quite a bit too and had left it messy and textured as it fell over one side of his face, covering his forehead, left eye and almost reaching down to his lips. It wasn't crazily long, Naruto had no willingness to go around looking like a blonde Jesus, but a hair length of over six inches seemed to be the only way he could control his insanely spiky hair. He had also grown a bit of a stubble and was calmly puffing out smoke into the air from the cigarette he was smoking. The 'smoking kills' concept didn't really apply to him, so he was making the best out of his gifts, he supposed.

Lost in his thoughts, he had been walking for some time now and hadn't realized that he had walked a couple of blocks ahead of his house. It wasn't a difficult thing to do, considering the shady alley he lived in.

Turning back, he walked towards the little apartment the blonde had rented for himself. Since he never actually liked to go through the effort of locking his door as the probability of a robber choosing to rob a dirty apartment in a dirtier alley was close to none, he directly opened it and entered his small abode. As he was walking in, his head hit the frame of the door and he muttered a little curse. Being 6'2" had its disadvantages after all. He went into his completely normal house, crashed on his completely normal bed, and fell asleep after his completely normal long day.

Something that was quite not normal however, was the place he went to after he fell asleep.

Naruto had entered his mindscape. Not a normal feat either, you should know, as the average human has no idea that a mindscape even existed inside their mind. It was close to inaccessible for normal humans, and since no one was actually quite sure of its existence, there wasn't much information as to why it existed. Although, its size in a normal human would be close to the size of a small room.

Naruto however, held the whole of his continent inside his head.

Looking over at the beautiful village, _his _beautiful village, fond memories of his childhood rushed back at him. As they always did. The village was utterly empty though, and the blonde sat down at the roof of what used to be his office a long, long time ago, and found peace with the silence, as he always did.

* * *

A ringing of an alarm clock was supposed to wake him up the next morning, but when a loud crash was what interrupted his sleep in the middle of the night, Naruto wasn't exactly pleased.

As he ran a hand through his long messy hair and prepared to get up from his bed, he heard another loud crash and then the sound of something toppling over. He groaned and moved towards his door, opening it.

He had expected to see a drunkard who had knocked over a dustbin or had knocked himself over in a dustbin.

Instead, he saw a boy with the legs of a donkey, lying unconscious in the alley, sprawled over the concrete.

And then he saw another creature, standing over a corner of the alley. It seemed that a boy-donkey hybrid wasn't enough weirdness for one night, he also needed to have a scary bat monster thrown into the mix. The creature had his back to him and was easily a foot taller than he was, and very thin. With two bat-like wings erupting from his hunched back and his rocky, scaly skin, he looked like a gargoyle. A living, breathing gargoyle with razor-sharp claws.

Even though he was no one to talk about weirdness, being a ninja who fought on backs of gigantic toads, that was a long time ago. He wasn't in that business anymore, and he wanted no part of his to get back into it.

Rubbing his eyes furiously, he muttered, "Be a figment of my imagination. _Please_ be just a figment of my imagination." Taking his fingers off his eyes, he sincerely hoped to see nothing strange but an empty alley, but was instead greeted by the razor-sharp teeth and large eyes of the creature looking right at him, who seemed to have heard his unanswered prayer and turned.

Naruto groaned loudly with a pained expression on his face. Then, he screamed, "FUCK NO! I am not having any part of this! You _aren't_ real, and that's the end of it!" He looked almost close to sobbing.

The monster grinned, his gruesome smile revealing more rows of dagger-like teeth. He took a few steps towards Naruto and took a long whiff.

Naruto stepped back and pointed at the monster, "Oo-kaay, _demonic lemur_. Step back a bit."

He continued, "This interaction between you and me?"

The monster nodded along, as if curious of what the blonde had to say. It was always fun to toy with the prey before the actual preying part came in.

"It never happened," Naruto said firmly, and then he repeated, "_Never,_" as if trying to convince himself. He then got back into his house, slept away and woke up the next day knowing that he had a crazy-ass dream the previous night. Or at least he was planning to do so until the monster's wings flapped and he started hovering a few feet above the ground.

"Am I visible to you, mortal?" The ugly creature asked in a voice as raspy as sandpaper on a blackboard.

Immediately, Naruto noticed that behind the creature was a scared and sobbing little girl crouched over the corner with her face buried in her knees. She had covered her head with both her hands in fear and was shaking. The monster's wide wingspan had hidden the girl behind himself and Naruto hadn't noticed her before.

He just sighed. He couldn't pretend that nothing had occurred in his alley anymore, or leave the scene to go back to sleep, no matter how much he wanted to leave himself out of anything that was even slightly not normal. It would probably result in the girl and donkey-centaur becoming gargoyle food. And he couldn't have that.

"You aren't just visible, you are disturbingly loud too," Naruto said in a scolding tone, "The thing is, if you had decided to do whatever you were planning on doing few blocks away, I wouldn't have cared. Mostly because I wouldn't have been awake to care about it. But this alley is close to my house, and you disturbed my sleep."

The monster seemed to process whatever the tall human had said to him for a moment. It almost sounded like a threat! The thought of which made him roar out with laughter in typical monstrous-giggling fashion.

"You talk too much, mortal," He said after his laughter died down, and then exclaimed, "What a treat! A demi-god, a satyr AND a clear-sighted mortal. This will be a tasty feast." The hoarseness of the creature's voice made Naruto's ears hurt.

Jabbing his index finger into his ear and furiously wiggling it back and forth, his eyes fell back on the little girl.

Sarah was a nine year old and she was supposed to be a demigod, from what her satyr friend had told her. He had been escorting her towards this Camp for children like her when the monster had sniffed them out and started chasing them. She had begged to whatever god could hear her, to help her. Was this strange man the answer to her prayers? Even though he did not look the part, wiggling his finger in his ear with such ferocity that his long hair had fallen over his whole face, he still could save them from the monster, right?

Naruto kept on jabbing in his index finger into his ear, trying to make the itchiness caused by the monster's voice go away while said monster looked on in bewilderment. He wasn't so sure of eating the mortal now, the man didn't look quite normal. What if he had a funny taste?

Suddenly, Naruto scratched his ear a certain way and the itch disappeared. Emerging victorious from his battle with his own ear, Naruto noticed the scared girl looking at him hopefully. He sent the scared girl a reassuring smile and ran a hand through his hair to push it back, sneakily wiping the ear wax on his other hand on the wall.

He then looked the monster dead in the eye and said, "Your feast won't be quite as tasty if I can help it."

In speeds the monster wouldn't have thought possible from a normal human, Naruto jumped high into the air and delivered an uppercut to the monster's jaw with such ferocity that he soared a few more feet into the air, but this time not because of his wings. Falling to the ground due to the imbalance caused by the ridiculously hard punch, the beast's head was ringing and his vision was blurry.

On pure instinct alone he managed to shoot up into the air, barely dodging a kick that he was sure would've taken his head right off. Just as Naruto's feet came back on the ground from his leap, the monster swooped in and grabbed his hands in his sharp talons, his razor-sharp nails digging into his biceps. The monster was planning to render his insanely strong arms useless by puncturing his biceps, and then taking him for a short flight and dropping him from a height. Even though he enjoyed devouring his prey alive, this one seemed too risky to be allowed to live any longer.

"Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch!" Naruto said in a rapid pace in the manner a puppy whines when kicked. Then clearing his throat once and composing himself, he said, "Okay if you're planning on dropping me from like a crazy altitude, forewarning: It won't work."

Still soaring up higher and higher, the monster raised an eyebrow and asked, "Why's that?"

Naruto winced again at the creature's painful voice and grunted out, "Because you'll never get high enough."

He kicked his legs behind him with the monster's talons still buried in his arm to generate momentum and swung ahead in a manner that a trapeze artist swings on a bar and kicked the chest of the monster with both his toes. His arms arm did twist in a grotesque manner, but his maneuver had the desired effect. His feral enemy's chest cavity seemed to have sunk in due to the pure impact of his kick. It spat blood, roared out and dropped him.

Falling to the ground from a height of over seventy feet, Naruto balanced himself midair with the grace of a cat and fell back to the ground back on his feet, the impact making his whole body shake violently. He looked up, ready for the monster to attack again, but his combatant couldn't balance himself in time and was falling towards the ground at insane speeds.

Just a few floors above the alley, his body smacked against a window overhang and burst into golden dust with one last scream, raining upon the blonde like a rain of molten gold.

The gold powder it had dissipated into was very unnecessary, and quite irritating as well in Naruto's opinion, as it stuck to his whole body and made him itchy.

"Glitter is such a bitch," He remarked with an irritated glare towards the window overhang as if it was the root cause of all this trouble, before he looked down at the state his arms were in.

Pulling up his t-shirt sleeve with his teeth, he wasn't too surprised to see the condition they were in: dripping with blood and so twisted due to his near-suicidal act that they looked like a wet red crumpled sheet of cloth.

'_Ugh, that'll take a while to heal,'_ He thought, before proceeding to scold himself, "Note to the future Naruto: No more acrobatic stunts that do more harm than good."

He channelled Kurama's chakra to his arms as the hole in his biceps started mending itself and the bones started rearranging themselves to their former state, albeit much slower than they used to. He pulled the sleeves down with his teeth since his arms hurt so much he couldn't move them. The little girl did not have to be subjected to such a grotesque sight.

Meanwhile, Sarah stared at the turning blonde's back with her mouth hung open and eyes wide in fascination. She had just witnessed a human beat a monster senseless and jump back to the ground in typical hero fashion from a crazy height, complete with the little dust cloud at his feet and all. Glittering like some new-age vampire because of the street-lamp illuminating the gold dust on his whole figure, he really did seem like the answer to her prayers.

Naruto advanced towards the little girl, and looked down to the ground and politely asked the baffled girl, "What is your name, kid?"

She took a moment to process that her protector was actually talking to her and she softly muttered "Sarah," the fascinated expression still on her face.

She got up slowly, dusted herself off, and to his pleasant surprise, jumped on him and hung there, wrapping both her arms around his neck. She then proceeded to bawl loudly on his t-shirt.

"I was… I was s-so scared," the girl managed to say between her sobs, "Thank you so very much!"

"I'd say 'you're welcome' if you hadn't wiped snot all over my T-shirt," the blonde said in a strict tone, but when he saw that it did nothing to quiet the sobbing child in his arms, he said, "Hush now, it's all right. The monster is gone."

Seeing that the child didn't seem to get off of his head, he told her to climb up on shoulders and sit there, since he himself couldn't pick her up and place her there with his arms.

He walked towards the other boy laying unconsciously, spread out on the alley, "Who's your friend?"

Sarah looked at Liam with a pout on her face, "He's a satyr. He was supposed to take me to this camp for children like me and be my protector, but he fainted as soon as he saw the monster."

Paying special attention to when Sarah said 'children like me', he decided not to ask her about it since she seemed quite put off by her encounter.

"Well, I guess we'll just have to leave him out here since I can't actually move my arms." He said in an uncaring manner as he started walking back to his door.

Sarah gasped as if the prospect was unacceptable, and said, "But its _cold _outside!"

Naruto chuckled, "Believe me, Sarah, in this part of the city, the cold is your least dangerous enemy."

Okay so maybe it wasn't _that_ dangerous, but the horrified gasp that Sarah let out made the exaggeration worth it.

"But he's my friend!" She exclaimed.

Naruto stopped dead in his tracks suddenly and turned back to face the unconscious 'satyr', and made a show of thinking for a moment, "Weeellll, I suppose I _could_ kick him all the way into the house…"

"No!" Was Sarah's quick shout.

Naruto chuckled again, "Relax, he'll be fine out here. I'm just playing with you."

Sarah pouted with an angry expression on her face as the blonde man took her to his house, and almost managed to kill her because he forgot to duck at the low-heighted apartment door. She was only breathing because she had screamed loudly at the last second to warn him.

"It wouldn't have killed you, you know!" Naruto said wincing at the girl's loud voice.

"It would have! I'd be lying on the floor with a bleeding head and you'd have another uncensous kid to deal with!"

Naruto burst out laughing.

Sarah pouted again, "Why're you laughing?!"

Naruto continued to laugh just for the sake of riling up the child and said, "I think you meant to say 'unconscious'."

Sarah looked away embarrassed even though Naruto couldn't see it since she was on his shoulders and shouted, "Whatever! I have a problem with big words!"

"Yeah, I noticed." Naruto chuckled again, and reaching his bedroom, he told the girl to get off on his bed. She jumped on the fluffy mattress and sighed happily.

"Don't touch anything," He warned her and said, "And I'll get something for you to eat."

Some sensation had now returned in his arms and his bones had mended slightly, but even the act of pouring milk into a bowl felt like having his hand flattened by a hydraulic press. Coming back with a bowl of cornflakes and strawberry flavored hot milk (don't judge a man for liking strawberry milk), he entered the room and almost had a panic attack. Placing the bowl on top of his shelf gently so as to not hurt his hands with sudden movement, he rushed to the exploring child, pulled the paper with strange writings on it away from her, and tucked it in his pocket. Even that felt like pushing his hands into a pit of lava, but if he hadn't, Sarah too probably wouldn't have functional hands anymore. And she didn't seem like she had an unnaturally potent healing ability.

"I told you not to touch anything!"

"But it was just a piece of paper!"

"A piece of paper that could've _killed _you, for real this time!"

"That makes no sense and you know it!"

"Shut up and eat your cornflakes!"

Looking at the pink milk and the aroma carried by the steam waving off the lukewarm milk, it could only be strawberry, her favorite flavor! She immediately jumped up on the bed and started eating.

Naruto pulled out a chair from under his desk, wincing at how much it took out of him and sat down facing the little girl sitting on his bed, happily eating away.

"Just don't spill any milk on the sheets," He said, but the girl did not even give a hint of having listened to him.

He sighed and decided that he would ask her about her strange statement before, now that she was calm and felt safe. Even if he did not intend on involving himself into the supernatural aspect of things, he would hate to admit it but he had already stuck himself in there. And once you're in, there's no getting out, which is one of the prime reasons why he had always turned a blind eye to all the supernatural occurrences he came across on a daily basis in the streets of New York.

Children running around the alleys with bronze swords in their hands and taxies zooming around at supersonic speeds and chugging out black smoke without anyone noticing were things that you became used to if you had ninja senses and you lived in Manhattan.

"So Sarah, when you said that your friend was taking you to a camp for 'children like you', what did you mean?"

Looking up from her bowl, she stared at the blonde with a reluctant expression, "Well, Liam told me not to tell anyone, but you fought the monster and saved our lives, so I guess you're okay."

Naruto nodded, gesturing her to continue.

"So…you have heard of the Greek gods, right?" She asked hopefully as if she desperately wanted him to say yes.

'_Seems like she has been dying to talk about it to someone…'_

"I think so…yes," Naruto thought hard for a moment, trying to recall all the weird names he had heard in movies and in passing, "Zeus, Hades, Athena, etc. etc., right?"

Sarah nodded furiously and smiled, "Yep! They're real!"

Naruto did not look baffled or disbelieving, which came as a surprise to Sarah. If anyone other than Liam had been the one to tell her about her parentage, she would not have believed them either.

"You look so calm! Did you already know this?" The little girl asked him, "It would be so boring if you already knew because then you wouldn't find it interesting!"

Naruto shook his head, "Nope! I didn't have any idea. I'm just thinking of why I never noticed them before or something, you know?"

"Well, Liam told me that they stay hidden on purpose and dit…dict…," she struggled in trying to form the word, and Naruto lent a helping hand.

"Dictate, you mean?"

"Yep! They dict…ate the forces that run the world," She said cheerfully, "They live on Mount Olympus which is above the Empire State Building. I don't really understand that but one of them is supposed to be my parent! And the camp he's taking me to is a camp of hundreds of children like me!"

Naruto now raised an eyebrow, "And Liam was the one to tell you all this?"

Sarah nodded again, "Yeah, he was my only friend at the orphanage. He was always helping me out and looking out for me. Weird things would always happen around me and monsters would keep attacking me. But everyone said that I just made things up! But Liam always believed me."

Naruto nodded and nudged her to keep going, "So when he told me it was because I wasn't an orphan and one of my parents was a god I was so happy!"

Naruto could see this system working. These so-called gods controlled the forces of the worlds or maybe supervised them, and occasionally had a child with a human in classic Greek mythology fashion. Even though he was not aware of many basic workings of the modern world, he was not ignorant. But if that was the case, why leave them out here to face these difficulties? No child deserved to be fighting monsters before they have even hit puberty. He had seen enough children who had to struggle or even kill to survive growing up, and it wasn't something he could ever appreciate.

"Do you know who exactly your godly parent is, Sarah?"

Sarah's bottom lip protruded out in a sad expression and she muttered a "no."

"Why didn't your godly parent contact you sooner? Why aren't they the ones to be escorting you?"

Sarah thought for a moment and she said, "Liam told me that it doesn't work like that. The gods are very busy so they cannot come down here. There was also something about an ancient law but I couldn't understand whatever he told me." She said sheepishly and bit her lip in embarrassment.

Naruto nodded in understanding, "All right then, Sarah. I'll tuck you in and you can sleep. You must be very tired, and tomorrow you can continue your journey."

He tucked her in bed and turned out the lights. The little girl shouted happily, "Goodnight..." before realizing she didn't actually know her savior's name.

Naruto smiled and said, "Its Naruto."

"Na-Ru-To," She said it out loud again and giggled, "You have a funny name, Naruto! I wish my name was as funny as yours!"

Not knowing whether he should be offended or pleased, he just said, "Goodnight, Sarah. Sleep well," with a chuckle.

When Naruto got back to thinking about the newly revealed information, he came to realize that it was a classic case of bad and irresponsible parentage. He shook his head and pitied himself for yet again managing to involve himself where he wasn't supposed to involve himself. He had been trying to avoid exactly this type of thing. He had affected way too many timelines now to try and influence more. He had a much more 'go-with-the-flow' attitude now, not opting to do anything and going where the current took him. But it seemed like the current itself wanted him to swim against it. And he was fucking tired already of swimming against it.

* * *

Liam's eyes opened to an unexpected sight of a clear morning sky overhead. He wondered if he had somehow been reborn as a flower inside a house's window. Then he realized that flowers did not have goat legs, or eyes for that matter.

The events of the previous night rushed back to him. It was all going good: he was escorting Sarah towards the Midtown Tunnel, which connected the borough to Long Island and he was telling her all that a new half-blood needed to know. Until they had been attacked by the monster of course.

Panicking as he remembered the monster, he hopped up to his feet and looked around, expecting it to come at him any second. When he could neither find the monster and nor his best friend he was supposed to protect, he fell to the ground on his goat knees and started sobbing. The girl he had befriended over the past couple months was in some random monster's belly now, and it was his fault.

He knew that would be his last days as a merry satyr, and that he had failed his mission. The regret of having his friend killed because he was too weak was so heavy that he couldn't stop the tears from flowing. He sobbed loudly and made goat noises.

"Okaayy, did you just _bleat_ right now?" A curious voice asked.

Liam looked to his right to see a man leaning on the doorframe by his side, looking at him with an amused smile on his face.

Without wasting a breath, he asked him loudly, "Have you seen my friend? She was nine and had brown hair. Please tell me you've seen her, please!"

Naruto looked at the satyr for a couple more seconds and then nodded, "Yep! I've seen her!"

A surge of relief spread through Liam's chest, "Thank Olympus! Where?"

"Well yesterday night there was this large beast who chomped her down," Naruto said with a serious face, "Said she was quite tasty too."

The surge of relief was gone as soon as it came. Liam couldn't find any words. His mouth was dry and it felt like the weight that had been taken off his chest had been dropped back twice as hard.

"Damn, are you having a seizure?" Naruto looked on, now alarmed.

"Okay, okay stop! Your friend is safely sleeping on my bed. Nothing's happened to her. I was just messing with you." Naruto said the truth before the poor kid died of a convulsion.

Liam looked relieved for a moment, before staring up at the tall blonde angrily, "You found it funny, huh?"

Naruto grinned, "I found it _very _funny."

He turned around and gestured the donkey to follow him inside. Liam gritted his teeth in pure rage and followed the irritating man into his house.

Just before he stepped foot into the house, Naruto turned around and looked him dead in the eye with the look of a killer, the shade falling on him in the narrow hallway shadowing his face and making him look even scarier than the monster, "I find _one _strand of donkey hair on my carpets, you'll pay."

Liam looked offended instead of scared, "I'm not a donkey! I am a goat!"

"The type of animal doesn't matter. Any animal fur is valid ground for severe punishment."

"How do you say that with a straight face?" Liam asked, sounding innocently curious.

"Its because I'm damn serious. I love eating goat."

Liam backed away from the maniac, "Don't eat my kin!"

"You worry about not getting yourself eaten." With that, Naruto turned back and led him to the bedroom.

By this point terrified, he was certainly relieved to find his best friend unharmed, sleeping and drooling away on the man's pillow. It seemed like he hadn't completely failed his mission after all.

"Found you both in the monster's grasp. If I hadn't shown up in time, maybe then you'd really have something to bawl about," Naruto said, and then a thoughtful expression came on his face, "Or maybe not. Since you'd be dead too."

Liam lowered his head. He had brought shame to himself and the satyr order by endangering his companion, but that was when a curious thought struck his mind.

"How could you see the monster? And my legs?" Liam could clearly smell that the man in front of him was a human, and he had never before heard of mortals who could see through the mist.

"Tut-tut, look carefully. The two things that are embedded in my skull just below my forehead, they are called eyes." Naruto said with dry sarcasm.

"No! I mean…I mean, you are a mortal. You shouldn't have been able to see my legs!" Liam was confused.

Hearing that, Naruto raised an eyebrow, "So is there like a mechanism that hides all of this from mortal eyes?" Liam raised his eyebrows, and Naruto said, "Sarah told me about the whole 'Greek gods are real' thing. So I'm cool, you can tell me."

Liam nodded, "Oh okay…It is called the mist and it shrouds everything that a mortal isn't supposed to see, things like monsters and divine stuff." Naruto had seen the monster too, so he wasn't surprised that the young adult didn't seem too baffled.

'_That would explain why no one other than me ever seems to notice the abnormalities, like that taxi car incident once...and those kids going around the subway with gleaming swords…' _Naruto thought.

Liam meanwhile, was thinking hard too, "Well, Chiron did tell me something about clear-sighted mortals or something, but I don't really remember. Chiron's lessons are too boring." He said embarrassedly.

"Chiron?"

The satyr nodded again, "Yep! He is the one who trains and teaches us in our camp."

Naruto made a mental note to grab Chiron and make him gurgle answers if he came across him. But for now, it was enough weirdness for one day. He was in, but that didn't mean he would keep digging to go in deeper. The lesser he involved himself, the better.

"Speaking of training and teaching, how'd you beat that monster? Being a human and all?" Liam asked curiously. He had never heard of humans ever standing up to monsters and coming out alive at that. Was the blonde a demigod too and just had never found out? But that couldn't be, he smelled like a normal human.

"I set my dog on him and he ran away." Was Naruto's curt reply.

"Wait. You have a dog?" Liam never got along with dogs. And they didn't usually get along too well with satyrs.

"I just told you, he ran away," Naruto said seriously.

Liam had a very confused expression on his face, "But I thought…you said the monster ran away…?" He muttered to himself.

"You can take the girl to this camp of yours," Naruto started, "Although I expect a nice thank-you card, along with the pleasure of you leaving my house as soon as you can."

"Um…thank you….?" Liam was even more confused.

"The name is Naruto. You're welcome. Please leave. I've got college."

"Geez man, no one asked you to save us and then bring us to your home in the first place!" Liam decided that even though he was grateful that Naruto had saved him, he didn't like him much.

"Do you know how uncomfortable explaining a dead child along with a dead weird donkey-ass teen to the police would have been?" The blonde looked at Liam with an annoyed expression on his face.

In turn, Liam looked back, even more annoyed, "I told you already, I am a goat!"

"And I told you already, it doesn't matter!"

Liam shook his head angrily, "Very well then. You've made it clear that you don't want us here. We'll be leaving now," Liam said, as he walked over to the sleeping girl, his every step creating a loud sound because of his hooves, which only served to annoy the blonde even more.

He woke Sarah, who was sleepy at first, and then overjoyed to see her only friend safe and conscious.

Meanwhile, Liam sniffled, "I'm-I'm so sorry, Sarah," He said, almost to the point of tears, "I know I was supposed to protect you but instead I was weak…"

Sarah just smiled at him, "But we're okay now, so it's okay!"

Liam raised his head and looked at his best friend, truly glad that they were safe.

"Your cute kindergarten reunion is over?" Naruto asked, pretending to be annoyed.

In response, Sarah jumped off the bed and hugged Naruto around his waist, since she was much shorter than him.

"Thank you, Naruto. For saving me and Liam."

He couldn't help but smile and ruffled the girl's long, brown hair as Liam looked on sulking.

"You want a hug too?" He asked the goat in an effort to rile him up even more.

"Hell no!" He screamed in return.

"Well, I wasn't offering," Naruto said and then added with a disgusted look, "I wouldn't want any of your _donkey_-fur sticking on my pants."

Liam gritted his teeth in pure rage, and told Sarah they were leaving.

"But won't Naruto come with us?" She asked Liam and then looked at Naruto hopefully.

"Nope, I've got college, so I can't," He said, shattering her hopes and making her pout, "You guys go on. Be safe, kids." Naruto said, eyeing the satyr in particular who didn't miss it and looked down in embarrassment.

Not too long after, they left.

And not too long after, Naruto grabbed his jacket and wore his favorite flip-flops and left too, but not for his college. A disturbing thought had made its way into his head. If the kids were attacked once, they could be attacked again. Even though his arms weren't completely healed from yesterday night's incident, he could still use his legs pretty effectively. And he could also use this opportunity to meet Chiron.

* * *

After quite a while of following Sarah and Liam undetected, through subways and buses, when they got into a cab, Naruto decided that he'd had enough. He'd have to do some ninja running yet again, and they tended to get tiring since he was so out of practice. Only if he could find a cab…

That was when his eyes fell upon the speeding yellow vehicle and he whistled at it. But he did it so loud that all the traffic on the road stopped. Thankfully, the kids' cab had already gone on quite ahead. Scratching his head sheepishly, he got into the cab. And he promptly realized he had no idea where the camp was.

Mentally annoyed at himself, he told the driver to tail the cab speeding off into the distance and inside the Midtown Tunnel without being noticed. The cabby looked at him with a raised eyebrow, as if needing an explanation along with the directions too.

Not being able to think of any better excuses, Naruto gritted his teeth and said, "Ugh, man. Inside that cab is my girlfriend with my best friend, and I have no idea what they're doing zooming off into the sunrise."

Giving the blonde a sympathetic nod and with a pained expression on his face, the cabbie started tailing the other taxi.

Not long after, Sarah and Liam's cab stopped and they hopped out, and continued walking ahead on the road on foot. Seeing a girl who couldn't be older than ten and a young boy walk out of the cab they had been tailing, Naruto's cabbie suddenly twitched violently and hit the breaks. The cab skidded on the empty road and its driver looked at Naruto disgustedly.

"THAT LITTLE GIRL IS YOUR GIRLFRIEND?!" He screamed at the blonde.

Naruto sighed, and just got out of the cab and dropped the fare on his seat and mumbled a small "thank you" and started walking away, the cabbie still looking at him as if he was the worst human alive.

The kids still did not seem to have noticed him, he had been tailing them from quite a distance. As they kept on walking, Naruto couldn't help but notice the dark clouds that were gathering in the sky, hiding the sun and casting the area in a shroud of semi-dark.

It wasn't long before Naruto heard a roar off into the distance that surely couldn't have been made by any animal that was a part of Long Island's fauna. Alarmed, he increased his pace to catch up with the kids who were about a quarter of a mile ahead of him. From the other end of the road emerged a monster carrying a battle-axe that looked heavier than the monster itself, and looking at him Naruto's first impression was that it was a walking cow on steroids.

When Sarah saw it, she screamed loudly, and Liam shouted, "It is blocking the road to the Camp, we'll have to make a run for it!"

They ran off the road and into the woods that were on both sides of the road, and seeing them take off, the monster started running towards them as well, his beefy legs giving him enough momentum to surprise even Naruto. No cow should be able to run like the wind.

Gritting his teeth and taking a deep breath, he started running towards the humanoid bull monster. But he wasn't as fast, and just as he was thirty yards away from the beast, it caught up to the running kids and swung his battle-axe in a wide arc. Naruto's breath caught in his throat, and all he could do was shout wildly, "**DUCK!**"

Thankfully, Sarah was nimble enough that she bent her back forwards just as the lethal weapon swung over her, but Liam did not have ADHD or hard-wired Greek battle skills. The axe hit him full in the face.

Expecting a satyr head to come soaring at him any second now, Naruto was surprised when it did not. The shaft of the battle-axe was too long and the monster had been targeting Sarah who had been running just a little ahead of her best friend. Liam was hit with the shoulder of the battle-axe handle. He was thrown off balance and flew through the air for a few feet before hitting the ground hard, unconscious. Again.

'_At least this time he isn't on the floor because of fainting.' _Naruto thought with a grimace.

Before the beast could ready himself after his wild swing and go after Sarah, Naruto picked up a pebble between his index and middle finger from the ground and swung his wrist in the motion that was used to throw the kunai with two fingers. The pebble shot towards the large creature and hit him square in his right eye, popping it.

The beast roared in pain, and Naruto looked at Sarah who seemed to be frozen in fear after seeing Liam. She had tears in her eyes, but seeing Naruto she looked surprised too. And was that a hint of relief that he saw in her eyes?

The former ninja gestured to her to run, but she looked at Liam as if she wouldn't go without taking him. Naruto looked her right in the eye and said, "Don't be stupid. I've got this. Run, now!" and run she did. Even though she seemed reluctant at first, she seemed to trust the blonde.

Meanwhile, the second monster that Naruto was facing off against in a time span of fewer than 24 hours had dropped his huge weapon to the ground and was clutching his face in his large hands and screaming in pain.

"Never knew bulls could howl like wolves," the blonde said with dry humor, as he kept walking towards the Minotaur. The bull-headed monster removed his hands from his face and looked at Naruto, and he managed to get a good look at the creature standing in front of him.

It was a monster with the head of a bull and the body of a man and was incredibly muscled and beefy. It wasn't much taller than Naruto was, and had fur from about the belly-button on up. He had one single curved horn on his head, the other one seemed to have been broken off at the base.

Naruto supposed this was the Minotaur he had seen in that one movie. He decided that they had done a poor job of creating the creature's likeness. It seemed much more ferocious standing in front of him, glaring at him with pure rage in one eye and the other bleeding golden blood.

The Minotaur bent slowly to pick up his dropped weapon, eyes never leaving Naruto as if daring him to make a move.

But he wasn't planning on making one. In his current state, and with his arms having no more strength than that of a pre-teen, he would never be able to fight him head-on. He needed to think of something, and fast.

The ground seemed to be sloping towards his left and deeper into the forest. But before he could give that fact much thought, his enemy was upon him in an instant. As it swung his deadly weapon, Naruto got a certificate of how sharp it was by just the shrill sound it made by cutting the air. Falling to the ground on his hands in an instant, he let the blade soar harmlessly above him and pushed himself up just as fast.

Wincing as his arms felt like they were dipped in acid by just pushing himself up, he decided to go for another move that was sure to hurt like a bitch.

He grabbed the handle of the blade, planning on pulling it out of the Minotaur's grasp by using the strength of his shoulder and reducing the strain on his arms. But the combined trajectory of the heavy weapon, his wrecked arms, and the Minotaur's strength overwhelmed him and he was pulled along with the blade. Losing his balance, Naruto fell to the ground on his stomach, where he was swiftly kicked in the side with a hoof. He skidded for a few feet on the ground before managing to get himself up with a loud groan. He felt as if he definitely had a few cracked ribs, but he could still think straight due to his insane pain tolerance.

This beast was on a whole another level in comparison to the one he had battled yesterday night. He wouldn't stand a chance against it if he didn't do something to end the battle quickly.

The large man-like bull sped towards Naruto, his axe raised over his head and as quick as lightning slammed it down where the tall blonde was standing a millisecond before. As Naruto jumped to the side, his left flip-flop slipped out from his foot. The axe tore through the flip-flop and the earth. The blade was buried deep inside, the ground itself shaking under the monster's strength.

Looking at his favorite flip-flop now in two pieces, Naruto snapped. His hair fell over his face and his eyes gained a dark look. Wasting not a second, he jumped on the shaft of his enemy's weapon and ran up it. As nimble as a cat but with the ferocity of a tiger, he firmly planted his flip-flop clad right foot into the Minotaur's nose. The large beast was staggered backward by the pure impact of the kick, his head ringing.

Not wasting a breath, the ex-Hokage landed on the ground behind his opponent and kicked his meaty legs out from under him. The man-bull smacked to the ground, his head twisting at a weird angle because of his large protruding horn and making him howl in pain yet again.

Naruto grabbed the shaft of the blade and pulled on it with all his might. His punctured biceps begun bleeding profusely, blood squirting out of the wound freely. Gritting his teeth, his arms suddenly started glowing red and his canines turned unusually sharp. Not even a second later, the blade was ripped out from the earth. Holding it in one hand, he walked towards the Minotaur who still lay on the ground in pain with his twisted head, his single long horn embedded inside the ground, making it nearly impossible for him to move.

Standing over him, Naruto took in a deep breath, grinned, and said, "See, I didn't have any _beef _with you. Until you cut my flip-flop in half," His grin died down and he saw terror in the Minotaur's eyes, "And now, I'll cut you down just like you cut down my favorite slipper."

With that, he raised the battle-axe above his head and brought it down on the Minotaur, exiling it into depths of Tartarous with a large burst of golden dust in a single swing.

"I am not killing any of these ever again! Fucking glitter…"

* * *

That was when around half a dozen armor-clad girls stormed into the little clearing with bronze spears in their hands, led by none other than Sarah. They looked at Naruto in awe and Sarah ran to him and jumped into his arms. Thankfully, she didn't start crying again and kept thanking him.

He asked her, "These girls are your camp mates, I presume?"

Sarah nodded in his arms and said, "I ran and ran until I came across the Camp spread out beside the sea. These girls were around its border and soon as I saw them I told me that my friends were in danger and brought them here!"

"A ton of help they were…" He said, shaking his head.

The girl who seemed the oldest out of the group walked up to him and asked him, her eyes still in awe, "How in the name of Hades did you manage to do that?"

Naruto grinned at her and just said, "It part of my charm."

He walked to his decapitated flip-flop and slipped the remaining wearable half into his left foot. He'd be damned if he ever let something happen to his flip-flops again. Walking towards the unconscious satyr, he picked him up by the foot and proceeded to drag him to the warrior girls.

"Would you pleasant girls mind taking me to whoever runs your camp? Oh, and the satyr needs help." The blonde remarked.

Still in his arms, Sarah said, "This is the second time he saved us! I am a demigod, and Liam was leading me over here when we got attacked by the scary bull-man, and I brought you here to help us out," Sarah explained, and then looked up at Naruto with a smile on her face, "But Naruto had already dealt with him!"

One of the girls said, eyeing Naruto, "Yeah, we saw that."

The previous girl spoke up again, "Very well then, follow us. Chiron would want to know about this anyways."

Through the woods and up the small hill the girl took him, and soon a wonderful sight met his eyes.

He stared across the meadow. There were groves of trees, a winding stream, and acres of strawberries spread out under the blue sky. The valley was surrounded by rolling hills. The landscape was dotted with ancient Greek architecture—an open-air pavilion, an amphitheater, a circular arena—but that they all looked brand new, their white marble columns sparkling in the sun. In a nearby sandpit, a dozen high school-age kids and satyrs played volleyball. Canoes glided across a small lake. Kids in bright orange T-shirts chased each other around a cluster of cabins nestled in the woods. Some shot targets at an archery range. Others rode horses down a wooded trail, and some of their horses had wings.

Naruto saw more girls in various types of armor patrolling the borders of the camp, and soon as he came near the borders he could sense some sort of invisible barrier around the parameter. Even though he had never sensed such a similar barrier before, and the sensation was very faint since the barrier wasn't meant for him as he passed right through it, his heightened senses still picked up on the unusual distortion. Putting it off as a simple protective barrier, he didn't pay much mind to it.

As they were walking down the hill towards a large farmhouse, Liam decided to wake up with a large yell, "AGHH! RUN SARAH! RUN NORTH TO THE CAMP! THE MINOTAUR CANNOT GO INSIDE! RUN BEFORE-"

Naruto had his hoof in his arm and he raised him up to his face and looked at him right in the eye. Not realizing that he was being dragged and alarmed at being picked up into the air by his hoof, Liam screamed, "Ah! You! Why are you here?!"

"Not a kind way to greet your savior, considering the fact that the said savior has saved you twice," Naruto told him and proceeded to shake his hoof hard, comically making him jiggle mid-air, earning another scream from Liam and giggles from the girls.

The girls led the group to the farmhouse, and standing under the porch was a man. A man, with the body of a horse. Naruto was not surprised though. When you grew up amidst people who could spit fire and turn into snakes, with a thousand-year-old fox for company, you get used to these kinds of things.

"Ah, Liam. It is good to see you again. And in such _high _spirits," Chiron looked at the odd group with a raised eyebrow, paying special attention to Naruto who was dangling him high mid-air.

Naruto dropped Liam on the porch softly and Chiron said to him, "I trust you managed to retrieve the girl you identified, judging by her presence here. But you, young man, I have never seen you before. Who might you be?" The half-man half-horse addressed Naruto, but it was Liam who spoke.

He told him all about the attack against him and Sarah by the monster the couldn't identify, leaving out the part of him fainting much to the amusement of Naruto. Naruto took a seat at one of the chairs arranged around a short table on one end of the porch as Liam explained everything that had happened with Sarah, laying down the parts of the story where the young satyr wasn't conscious.

"Well, I should be thanking you then, Naruto. But you are a human, are you not?" Chiron asked him kindly, to which Naruto nodded.

"Well, I wonder, how a human like you managed to defeat two monsters with his bare hands?" Chiron looked at the blonde with interest.

"I um…," Naruto fished around for a decent excuse, "I used to learn karate when I was a kid. Yep, that's why," was the blonde's reply. God, he was terrible at these.

He just smiled at the young adult's explanation and thanked the daughters of Ares who had brought them here, who went back to their patrolling duties. He also formally welcomed Sarah and told Liam to take her to the Hermes Cabin and show her the introductory film and give her a tour of the camp.

"And now that they have left, mind telling me truly how you were exactly able to defeat two monsters, one of them being the feared Minotaur, no less?" Chiron asked, a bit more strictly this time.

The blonde proceeded to grab a can of soda from the wooden table and take a large gulp.

"This is good stuff," He remarked, before emptying the whole can in one large swig, "And coming back to your question, as I told you, I learnt karate when I was young," he said with a shrug.

Chiron did not believe that for a single second, but he saw that the blonde meant no harm. So he decided to ask a different question instead, "I suppose Sarah and Liam filled you in on the divine beings and you're aware of their existence?"

"Not until yesterday," He said casually, "But imagine my alarm at finding an ugly winged-monster one night terrorizing a girl and a goat boy on the alley outside my house. And that was what led me to find out about these 'gods', that you speak of."

Chiron was put off by how calmly the blonde was taking all of this, "The encounter with the monster did not surprise you?"

"Well, my ex-girlfriend was equally ugly, so no, not really."

Chiron shook his head at the blonde's sense of humor, and his ability to dodge questions. He had handled many a cocky hero back in his day. The cocky criteria Naruto fulfilled pretty well, but whether the man in front of him was truly cut out for the hero role remained to be seen.

"Very well then. I thank you once again, and request you to keep this knowledge to yourself, for obvious reasons," Chiron told him, deciding to stop with the questions as he realized that Naruto would keep dodging any that were thrown at him.

Naruto grunted as if the warning was obvious, which it was, "I have no wish to be branded a madman by going around telling people I fought monsters and that Greek gods exist."

With that comment, he got up and walked towards a carton full of soda cans. He picked another can up and emptied it in one gulp, before picking up another.

"This is really good stuff, I hope you don't mind obviously. Can I take some home?" Naruto asked innocently.

Chiron smiled again. "Sure. This is the least we can do to thank you."

The blonde nodded, and picked u_p_ the_ whole carton_, leaving with a wave.

Chiron groaned loudly in mild irritation at the thought of explaining the disappearance of a whole carton of soda to Dionysus.

* * *

It had been an amazingly long day for Naruto, he mused to himself as he made his way across the camp. Days with so many plot twists and climaxes were a thing of the past for him now. But he supposed he could get used to them once again, he thought with a shake of his head as he walked towards the large pine tree where the exit was through the Half-Blood hill.

Some Dryads at the edge of the woods nearby stared at him with strange looks, and Naruto stared right back. He winked at one, and the wood nymph blushed green.

Naruto chuckled and was about to continue when he heard the sharp sound of air being cut. He raised his hand to his face impulsively without wasting a split second and caught the arrow before it could embed itself into his temple. He looked over to the boy who held the bow that had fired the arrow, shaking in fear.

He chuckled and walked over to the boy, and asked with a smile, "What did I ever do to you to warrant this assassination attempt?"

The young boy who looked to be in his tweens was worried out of his mind, "I am so, so sorry! I n-never meant to try and kill you!"

Naruto laughed again, "Well, you almost succeeded," and with a thought and another chuckle, added, "And lord would you have people lining up to thank you if you had."

He looked up at the tall man who looked to be quite young. He had never seen him before around the camp, "Are you a new instructor or something?"

Naruto just shook his head, and admitted, "Um, no. I was just taking a look around, talking to your Chiron about some stuff. Although," he pointed at the boy, "You, are in desperate need of some instruction before you pop out someone's eye by accident."

The kid just smiled sheepishly and bit his tongue, "I was nocking the arrow and the string's really right so I always have to hold it backwards and pull the string with my feet."

Naruto looked at him incredulously, "You almost killed me and you weren't even shooting the arrow?"

The kid just grinned.

Naruto raised his hands up in the air in a sign of being helpless, "Wow. Just, wow. Go grab another bow kid, I'll teach you the method and you can tell the next person who walks through that field that I saved their life."

The younger one out of the odd pair smiled brightly and went to grab another bow from the table nearby, which had other archery equipment laid out on it, "I'm an Apollo kid so I'm naturally supposed to be good at archery and stuff. But I suck at it," His smile died down a bit, "So everyone makes fun of me."

"Well, they won't anymore after this," Naruto told him, and then he noticed that the kid was grabbing a bow that was the same size as the previous one he had been wielding.

Face-palming, he told him, "First Lesson: When you're using a bow that's as big as you are, you'll obviously end up making a shish-kebob outta someone's head unless you can control the draw."

Scrunching his eye-brows together, he looked up to the tall blonde, "But I've seen some heroes using these HUGE bows that were _twice _as big as they were!"

"Those are the uh...," Taking a moment to recall the name of the Greek legendary figure, Naruto continued, "Yep! Those are the Hercules-style muscled freaks who have the strength to draw the string on such a bow. Are you Hercules?"

The demigod shook his head.

"Are you muscled?"

He shook his head again.

"Exactly. So we start with a small bow. Grab the smallest one you can find."

Naruto then grabbed the bow he had dropped on the ground and demonstrated to the boy how to nock the arrow and the firing techniques. He let an arrow fly towards the target. It soared through the air and hit the dead center of the dummy's forehead with a thump.

Smiling smugly with satisfaction, he told the kid to let loose as well. He proceeded to do the same, but he only managed to hit the dummy's right arm. He pouted at not being able to hit the dummy's head like the nice man had.

"You always start out small, kid. You are a quick learner, but you breathe out the moment you let the arrow loose, which messes up your shot." Naruto told the boy, who looked at him with slight surprise before picking up another arrow and trying again. This time, it hit a few centimeters away from where he had been aiming.

The kid let out a whoop of joy and thanked the blonde man.

Naruto smiled at him, and turned to leave when a voice addressed him, "I thought you were leaving?"

Naruto turned to look at the old centaur, who was smiling.

"Well, I was planning to, before this kid here almost skewered my head with his arrow. And giving kids who are barely even teenagers arrows that aren't blunted?" He said with a dubious expression on his face, "Whose brilliant idea was that? _Outstanding move_."

Chiron nodded in agreement, and then said, "That's all well and good. But will their enemies and the monsters fire at them with blunted arrows?"

"Yeah? And a lot of good it'll do to them if they themselves kill their friends during training because they sneezed while letting loose!" Naruto continued incredulously, "And what is the deal with those damned monsters?!"

Chiron gestured the blonde to follow him as he led him towards the exit of Camp Half-Blood, "Demigods have a certain smell, or rather an aura to put it better. This is caused by the immortal blood that is a part of their system. That aura can be sensed by the monsters and which is why demigods are under the constant danger of being attacked by them."

Naruto nodded, "Immortal blood you said? So these pipsqueaks live forever?"

"No. The immortal blood is mixed with their own mortal blood and is highly diluted. It doesn't grant them immortality, but yet it is still potent enough that monsters can sense it from long distances."

"And they aren't under the danger of becoming monster pedigree out here?"

Chiron laughed lightly at Naruto's way of putting it and said, "No, there is a magical barrier that surrounds the place. No monster can enter in from the outside."

The retired ninja nodded in understanding and Chiron decided to try and gauge out a little more information from him since he seemed to have eased up a bit, "So, Naruto, that is a strange name. Where are you from?"

"Listen here old man, or old horse, or whatever you prefer to be called…"

"Chiron would suffice, I hope you don't mind the interruption." Chiron laughed again.

He did mind the interruption, but he had a more important point to make. He continued, "Your obvious attempts at finding out everything about me are very obvious, and quite frustrating as well." Naruto said, looking Chiron in the eye.

"Oh, you are quite mistaken Naruto. I am just being curious. A young man such as you knows a lot about warfare. How?" Chiron asked politely.

"You are one stubborn man. Or horse. Or both. Did you hear ANYTHING I said a moment ago?" The centaur had been getting on his nerves from the moment he started speaking, but now Naruto was seriously annoyed.

Chiron laughed heartily, and said, "Don't worry, Naruto. Even though you seem quite reluctant of company, you are welcome whenever at Camp-Half Blood. You did a good deed by helping the girl and Liam."

"Would you mind doing a good deed in return?" Naruto asked Chiron sweetly.

"What is it Naruto?" They had reached the little walkway that led out of the Camp.

"Let me leave in peace, thank you." With that, he turned and walked away with a little wave.

Chiron could definitely see this boy's presence affecting the flow of things drastically in the future. He smiled again.

His smile was wiped off his face when he heard an angry Dionysus, a _very_ angry Dionysus screaming from the Big House, "WHERE IS ALL MY SODA, CHIRON?!"

* * *

_It had been an amazingly long day,_ reflected Naruto for the second time on the same day as he made his way to his apartment through the Fifth Avenue.

He looked up to see the wonderful structure known as the Empire State Building. All its lights and its impressive height was a sight to behold. Naruto had a hard time imagining that it was supposed to have a whole mountain above it. Or maybe not such a hard time, after all. He had seen plenty of weirder things during his time.

He went over to a nearby café and bar that he frequented, sat at the table, and asked for a bourbon.

Even though it would take something much stronger and in much larger quantity to have any effect on him, as Kurama's chakra would always render the alcohol useless before it could intoxicate his body, it was no reason to not drink.

"Long day, Naruto?" The bartender asked him.

"Tell me about it," groaned Naruto, as he put his head down on the table after gulping down his drink, and promptly fell asleep there.

The bartender chuckled but did nothing to wake the blonde up, as it was quite the common occurrence.

The next time the blonde opened his eyes, he found himself in his friend's house.

"I had to change shifts, and I couldn't exactly leave you there." His friend smiled at him.

Naruto was not surprised though, this was a common occurrence as well.

He looked at his watch and saw that it was 3 o'clock in the morning.

"Now please be so kind as to fuck out of here, and let me sleep in peace." Naruto's friend was arranging his bed, getting ready to sleep.

"Well, you could have been more discreet about it. A simple goodbye would have sufficed, Ed." Naruto shot him an ugly look, before he got up, grabbed an apple from his Ed's kitchen (Ed shouted him at him to not take whatever he was taking, but he ignored him) and left.

He was walking towards his home when he heard a loud growl.

'_Lord, can I catch a damn break?' _He groaned internally before making his way towards the source of the sound to find a small boy, backing away from what could be described as a massive canine monster with glowing red eyes and reptilian teeth.

'_I suppose this is what you call a fucking hellhound.' _He thought to himself, gritting his teeth. The hellhound turned to look at Naruto, demonstrating that it had a good hearing, or maybe a good sense of smell.

The monster snarled at Naruto before he jumped towards him as quick as lightning, fully intent on biting the blonde's head off.

The dog was as large as an SUV, but for all the size, it was very agile. Naruto almost had his torso bitten off as he sidestepped just in time.

"WHAT AM I? A FUCKING DEMIGOD?" He shouted at the overgrown dog who tilted its head as it looked at him, maybe in surprise at being shouted at, "YOU GUYS FIND NO PLACE SHADIER THAN MY ALLEY FOR YOUR DINNERTIME?!"

The hellhound looked at him curiously before realizing it was here to hunt and jumped at him. Naruto rolled below the monster passed overhead. The hellhound turned around in a flash to see Naruto grabbing a window overhang above his head and climbing on it. The monster tried to jump at him, but Naruto just kept going up, grabbing overhangs and hoisting himself up till he was as high as the third floor.

With the hellhound below him barking and roaring, staring right up at him, Naruto filled his fists with the residue gold dust from yesterday that the gargoyle-monster had left on there upon its death and threw it at the hellhound.

Blinded by the sharp golden particles, the hellhound howled and Naruto got a bit of time to think of something. But not even a second later, he saw the monster baring its teeth in his direction and looking at him with its glowing eyes. In the heat of the moment, Naruto pulled out a chicken bone from...somewhere and threw it at a distance on the other end of the alley.

The hellhound's natural instincts gave in as it rushed towards the thrown bone, quite like how a pet poodle would go to fetch a thrown stick, its tail wiggling and a happy expression on its face.

However, mid-way it realized it wasn't here for just bones. It was here for some demigod flesh too. And it did not appreciate the intrusion. The hellhound turned around to look at the blonde who had thrown the bone, and snarled at him, baring his vicious teeth. Its eyes seemed to glow a bit brighter and the pure malice rolling off of the monster coupled along with those scary teeth would've been enough to absolutely frighten a grown man.

But Naruto didn't seem even slightly fazed. His eye just twitched in irritation as he jumped down from the overhang, right in front of the monster and snarled back at the hellhound.

Kurama's chakra rushed to his face, making his eyes glow red and enlarging his canines. His whiskers that seemed to be embedded in his cheek grew thicker and the killing intent that he was releasing on the hellhound caused it to girlishly squeak and unconsciously lower its tail between its hind legs and sit down in an act of submission.

The blonde proceeded to go ahead and pet the hellhound on his head, earning him a lick on the hand and wagging of the dog's tail.

"Well, it looks like I made a new friend." Naruto cheerfully said before making his way over to the scared boy.

He was still scared, but the fact that the man walking towards him managed to beat the monster with just a scream helped. Naruto got to him and extended his arm. They seemed to be almost healed enough for casual use.

"What's your name?"

The boy took the arm and Naruto pulled him up.

"F-Finn." When he saw the hellhound sitting down and wagging its tail, he stepped back a bit as the fear suddenly returned.

It could just pounce at him and rip off his whole head in a bite. Naruto noticed his fear and said, "You can pet him Finn, it's okay."

He looked up at the tall man incredulously. He had said "you can pet him" as casually as someone would tell you to pet their Chihuahua.

"I am not going anywhere that thing!" He shouted. Naruto just shook his head and lightly pushed him at the sitting monster. Finn's breath caught in his throat as he stumbled right towards the hellhound. It opened its mouth out wide and time seemed to slow down as the boy made peace with his maker. But instead of getting his torso ripped out, he got a lick on the face. The hellhound's tongue was huge and it drenched him completely, and the smell of his mouth made him faint.

Naruto facepalmed and picked him up in his arms, and walked over to his apartment, his new friend following behind him, seemingly docile.

"You need some damn Colgate."

As his head hit the top of the doorframe with a loud bang, Finn woke up.

"Ouch!" Naruto exclaimed, and then noticed Finn had returned to consciousness, and said cheerfully, "Welcome back to the world of the living!"

Dumping the child on his bed and making him bounce and grin, he asked, "Well, Finn. Do you know who your parents were?" Even though he was asking, he was still pretty sure that the kid had no idea.

"I am an orphan. I n-never knew them." The scared boy muttered.

Naruto sighed knowingly, "So you're one of them demigods too?"

Expecting a nod of the head, he was surprised when Finn just scrunched up his face, "Semi-what?"

Naruto figured that he had no idea and that it would be best if he was to take him to Camp Half-Blood. He decided that it would be best if Chiron was to explain about him being a demigod, since the centaur would do it quite better than he himself.

He nodded and just told Finn to never-mind and sleep. He turned around after tucking the kid in, only to notice that the hellhound had followed him into the house and room, its mouth open and its tongue rolled out carelessly. He proceeded to his fridge and chucked a large portion of pork that he found at the hellhound, who happily started munching away.

Finn thankfully didn't notice from under the sheets. It wouldn't be healthy for the kid to faint twice in a span of 2 minutes.

* * *

When Finn got up the next day, he was shown the way to the bathroom where he freshened up and came out to see Naruto all readied up. Wearing a dark grey Henley t-shirt under a lightweight denim jacket and simple form-fitting jeans, he seemed as if he was going out somewhere.

"Do you know why that monster attacked you the previous night, Finn?" Naruto asked him as he handed him a simple cheese sandwich.

The kid took a bite and seemed to like it, "Nope. I've been attacked by such monsters before as well. It's not common, but it isn't rare either." Soon he chomped down the whole thing and asked for more.

After being handed another sandwich, he continued, "Somehow, no one else seems to notice them. Like that time when our orphanage went on a little trip to the Metropolitan Museum and these weird metal donkey legged ladies with flaming hair tried to suck my blood. And that time when we went to the Brooklyn bridge and this lion-snake monster tried to eat me."

Finn looked up at Naruto, expecting the blonde to start laughing at him any second because he thought he was lying. But his protector just nodded in understanding.

"You know Finn, I know of a perfect place for kids who are just like you. You would make a lot of friends over there, and also learn how to protect yourself. Would you like me to take you there?" The blonde asked the young boy.

He was reluctant at first, but he knew he could trust the blonde. He had saved him after all.

And that was how Naruto found himself walking through Half-Blood Hill the next morning.

* * *

**There, all done. Please drop in a review if you have any feedback. Many questions that y'all will obviously have will be addressed later on.**

**See ya'**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey, y'all!**

**How are you guys? Sorry, this update is way too late, I know.**

**I had planned on bi-weekly updates when i wrote the first chapter of the story, but there was quite a lot going on.  
**

**A few review responses first:**

**Perennial Dust : I get where you're coming from. But the reason he stuck around is because he felt responsible for the children he rescued. I think this chapter should give just a little insight. But you'll have quite a lot of Naruto saying one thing and doing the other. That is because the Naruto I have portrayed, he wants everyone to look at him in a specific way, as a guy who doesn't give a shit about anything, but in reality isn't very different from the cheerful and caring Naruto he once was.**

**Raimon : Starlord is amaing imo. And so is the theme song. If this Naruto reminds you of him, I guess I'm doing it right.**

**Djberneman : I have some quite fun things planned for the hellhound. Stick around eh ;)**

**pokemonrot377 : Got some of that planned ;)**

**DarkShadowRaven : Yes, he is quite old. And regarding all the other questions you might have in mind, they'll be cleared out soon in upcoming chapters.**

* * *

**Here you go! The second chapter!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

The summer sun was blazing, illuminating the valley on which the Camp Half-Blood spread out. Teenagers, and a few kids could be seen going on about their jobs or playing around.

Demigods were practising archery and sword fighting, and some could also be seen trying to scale a wall while lava spurted all around them.

"Close your mouth, Finn. An insect might find it interesting and fly in."

Finn shut his mouth abruptly, but nothing could make him shut his widened eyes. He looked on in amazement at the camp spread out on the valley, and the unique style of architecture of the buildings. He was horrified and amazed at the same time, when he saw a kid scramble up the wall while hot boiling lava poured around him. He looked at kids fighting each other with swords glinting in the sun, and saw kids using bows to shoot arrows at dummies.

Accompanying Finn, was a tall blonde, with a very large dog by his side. And the dog, was not a normal dog. It was a hellhound, from the depths of the underworld. He occasionally licked the blonde's elbow, and wettened his sleeve with his saliva, much to his annoyance.

When he did it once more, Naruto shouted in annoyance, "You're doing it just to irritate me, aren't you?!"

The hellhound tilted his head, and just wagged his tail.

"I knew it! No more treats for the day." Naruto huffed in annoyance.

The hellhound started looking at him, with large teary eyes, and his tail stopped wagging and drooped.

Naruto knew that if he looked at the hellhound, his resolve would crumble. How does a hellhound manage to pull off the infamous puppy dog eyes anyway?!

Thankfully, Finn decided to pull him out of his misery.

"Are…are all of these kids, just like me?" Finn looked up at the blonde man who had brought him here, with the promise of a home.

Naruto looked down at him and spoke, "Yes, one of their parents was a god or a goddess."

"So, who was my father or mother? I really hope my father is Zeus! He is so cool! I saw him in a movie; he appeared in a flash of lightning and started shocking everyone around! Boom! Wham!" The child imitated explosions with his hand as he spoke, and jumped around.

Naruto smiled at his innocence, and grabbed his hand, to lead him towards the camp, not too far away now. "It might be possible, Finn. And then in no time, you would be appearing in flashes of lighting and shocking monsters here and there too!"

"Wow! Really?!" He had to look up when he was talking to Naruto, because he was very tall.

"Yes Finn. Nothing is impossible if you are dedicated…,"

What he was saying was interrupted by a bark from his hellhound companion.

"Oh c'mon Sasuke, didn't I tell you? It is rude to interrupt when two people are talking!" He looked at his pet and scolded him.

And yes, he had named his hellhound Sasuke. Something about naming his dog after his now dead brother-like friend sounded like such an amusing and intriguing concept to the blonde that he went right ahead and did it. He sure hoped that it riled his former teammate up, wherever he was now.

Sasuke barked again.

Something about that line made the blonde guffaw.

He then looked at his pet, and saw that something was stopping him from moving ahead for some reason. Some kind of an invisible wall.

'_Ah, the barrier I sensed earlier. It doesn't allow monsters to enter.'_

"It would seem that you can't enter Sasuke. It's all right. You can go back to my house, and no going near the refrigerator again!"

Sasuke looked sad, but he trotted over to the nearest shadow, under a tree, and sank in it.

Naruto and Finn continued the rest of their walk through the valley, Finn still going on about how Poseidon for a dad would be cool too, as he would then be able to talk to fish, and Naruto smiling at him.

The blonde then gestured to a large farm house in front of him, and said, "And that, is where you will meet your teacher, Chiron. C'mon."

Naruto walked up to the porch, except he did not find Chiron there. Instead, sitting on a wooden chair near a card table, was a small porky man. He had a red nose, big watery eyes, and curly hair so black it was almost purple. He wore a tiger patterned Hawaiian shirt, and had bloodshot eyes.

He looked up at the tall blonde in front of him, and the young boy holding his arm.

A staring match took place between the blonde and the short man, neither of the backing down. Eventually, curiosity got the better of him though, and he asked Naruto, "Who are you? You don't look like a camper. Not that I would remember if you were."

"No, I am not a demigod, if that is what you mean. Where is Chiron?" Naruto asked him.

To be honest, this blonde riled Dionysus up. He walks in the camp casually like he owns the place, and proceeds to stare at him so rudely. Him! A god!

"What is your business with Chiron, mortal?" Dionysus asked, with a raised eyebrow.

"Who are you?"

To be honest, this porky man riled Naruto up. Something about him just tickled him the wrong way.

"A question is not answered with another question." Dionysus wasn't used to being talked to like this.

"It is when I want it to. Now, who are you?" Naruto could see that he was getting on his nerves, and he was immensely enjoying it as well.

"You want to know who I am?" Dionysus got up from his chair, walked up to the blonde, "I am Dionysus. The god of madness and wine."

Every word was spoken with much emphasis.

Dionysus expected the disrespectful blonde to back off, apologize, or even shout in disbelief.

He never expected him to start laughing.

"What is so funny, pray tell me?" Dionysus asked with clenched teeth.

The blonde chuckled again, and said, "Ah, that explains the smell."

Dionysus had enough disrespect for one day. He decided he would teach the boy some respect. He stared into the blue eyes of the blonde, that were glinting in the light, and showed him the worst of visions.

Visions of gruesome deaths, and people descending into insanity.

It would've been enough to knock a full grown man to down on the ground.

But the blonde laughed yet again.

"That the best you can think of?"

And suddenly, he saw the blonde's eyes flash red, before Dionysus found himself in a desert, dying from thirst, a goblet of wine a foot in front of him, but when he reached out to grab it, the goblet kept getting away from him farther and farther. Then he found himself drowning in the same goblet of wine. Then he found himself going insane, ripping his own fingers off. He then found himself wrapped in thorny vines, bleeding from having a million thorns pricking him.

Then, he found himself giving birth to a huge grape, thrice as large as a normal football.

He then found himself being raped, by the very same thorny vines that were all around him a moment before.

All of this, and more, in the span of a mere second.

When he was pulled out of the vision, he fell to his knees. The visions that he had just seen, they were vivid. They seemed as real as the air that he was thankfully breathing right now.

They had scared the shit out of Dionysus. Dionysus had been scared before. It was nothing new to him. His father, Zeus, scared him. Some of the monsters that were stuck into the Tartarus for eternity scared him. Some monsters that _weren't_ in the Tartarus scared him even more.

But for the first time, in a thousand years, Dionysus realized what it felt like to have your life in danger. What it felt like to be a step away from dying.

What it felt like, to be truly afraid.

He turned, to look at the blonde, sitting on HIS chair, sipping on HIS can of strawberry soda.

"W-who are you?" He asked, still on the ground.

"Oh, just your common mere mortal." Was his reply.

Dionysus got up, and realised that he was cold when a light breeze flew past him. He was sweaty, and his tiger patterned shirt was soaked.

"Now, Dionysus, god of wine and madness, I hope we can be friends." Naruto said with a sweet smile.

Finn looked on to what had taken place before his eyes in shock and awe. They had reached the porch to find a man sitting on a chair. Naruto and the man, who called himself Dionysus, had a borderline argument kind of talk, and Dionysus proceeded to get up and walk to the much taller blonde and look him in the eye. And then he just fell on his knees. Just like that.

Finn knew that Naruto had done something. He did not know what, but he knew that he had.

The tension in the air was thick, and it was broken by Chiron, who trotted up to the two men and one boy, in his centaur form.

Finn looked at him with eyes that were so wide, they looked like dinner plates.

Chiron smiled when he looked at Naruto, and glanced at Dionysus, who was strangely sweating.

He looked like he was about to say something, before Naruto interrupted him.

"Save it, old…centaur. I found the kid, I brought him here. Now, I will leave, thank you very much."

Naruto was about to get up, when Chiron asked him to stay.

Before he could reply, Chiron called one of the campers, and told her to take Finn, and show him the orientation film.

He then looked at the blonde, for an explanation he supposed.

"An orphan. Found him in an alley. If I had been a second late, he would not have made it here." Naruto said, after Finn was gone.

"Life for demigods is hard, Naruto. And people like you, you can help them. I understand if you don't want to, and I thank you, for saving yet another child."

Having the blonde helping the Keeper satyrs in finding demigods around the world would be a major help. And Naruto had proved that he was capable of handling himself.

His musings were interrupted by Dionysus, who sounded especially displeased today.

"It seems like you have found quite the interesting specimen, Chiron." He looked at Naruto while saying this.

Naruto winked at him, and smiled, "Surely not all that interesting. I am just a mortal, after all."

With this he got up, and started walking away.

"If you ever change your mind, Naruto, about helping these demigods, you're always welcome here."

He nodded at Chiron's words, before a feminine squeal of joy erupted from near his chest, where a very happy Sarah had jumped onto.

"Hi Naruto!" She said cheerfully.

"Oof, Sarah, don't you have somewhere else to be? Go train or something! I was leaving anyway" He said as he continued to walk towards the large pine tree, where the exit was.

"But I have so much to tell you! Do you know, I am a daughter of Aphrodite! One night when everyone was eating at the bonfire I suddenly started glowing! Then everyone bowed down and they had me move into the Aphrodite cabin! I made some friends at the Hermes cabin but the Aphrodite cabin is so much better! It so pink, its almost like a dollhouse!" She said happily.

Naruto couldn't help but smile at the child's innocence.

"So did you make any friends at the Aphrodite cabin?"

"YESS, everyone there is so nice and amazing, and just like me!"

He supposed that was to be expected, since they had the same mother.

Naruto liked what the camp was doing for these children. Displaced godly children with nowhere to go, could come here and find a family for themselves. As Sarah had, and as he supposed Finn would as well.

Despite his claims that he didn't care about all this, he still felt somehow responsible, for these kids' safety, and their happiness.

And so, he would continue to help any kids he would come across. Any and all. He would protect those who couldn't protect themselves.

He was starting to resemble his older self much more now, he mused to himself.

"**Careful now, you don't want them to know you're all caring and plushy inside." **A deep, gruff voice resonated from somewhere deep within his psyche.

'_Oh! He speaks! The mighty kitsune-sama!'_

"**You ought to have more respect for the kitsune-sama. I could still blast your behind all the way to Konoha, kid."**

'_Hah, don't be so sure bud. You never know after all,'_ He replied, within his mind, _'And when are you going to stop calling me a kid?! I was the Kage of the strongest Hidden Village, you ought to be the one with more respect.'_

"**The same village I levelled down to the ground with a flick of my tail." **The gruff voice responded lazily.

'_And got sealed into a kid who hadn't even grown teeth yet.' _Naruto guffawed.

"**And still am, and Kami knows how much I hate that kid."**

'_Aw, I love you too furball.'_

A **"Hmph." **was all he got in return.

Kurama was still inside him, although it was more a matter of choice rather than a matter of a large metal gate with bars and a paper restricting his exit.

And Naruto was duly grateful for the company of the fox. He would've lost it a long time ago otherwise. Naruto had had him since his birth now, and how amusingly long ago that had been.

As the last remnants of their age, or rather, Naruto's age, since Kurama had been quite old when he was sealed, it was natural for them to stick together.

Two overpowered beings, equally displaced, and lost of age and time and home. It was natural that one of them preferred living INSIDE the mind of the other, and sleep his days away.

They weren't just lost of age and home though, they had no purpose. They hadn't had one for a long time now. So Kurama supposed it was natural of the blonde to manage to find himself helping sons and daughters of gods and fighting monsters, since he always had a profound knack for getting himself into things he shouldn't have.

It was all natural.

Their musings were interrupted by a question from the little girl, still in his arms.

"What was that, Sarah? I didn't listen to what you said." Naruto asked her.

"I asked if you would please stay for the night. They have a bonfire and we sing songs, and anything that you want to eat appears on the tables!" Sarah spoke quickly, hoping the blonde would agree.

He thought about it for a moment. Or at least he pretended to, because he supposed it would hurt the girl's feelings if he said no outright.

"No Sarah, I have work to do, college and all."

He lied obviously. All the work that he had planned on doing was falling asleep on his bed in his own apartment.

Sarah pouted and said, "I'll not let you go!" with a determined look on her face, and grabbed onto his head, pulled herself upward, and sat on his neck.

"I won't get off until you promise me that you'll stay!"

"Stop wiggling around on me! I'm ticklish."

Soon as he said that, he regretted it. Sarah started tickling his neck furiously, and Naruto had enough.

He grabbed her from his neck, lifted the now struggling girl, and placed her on the nearest tree branch as she tried punching and kicking him, but her hands and legs were too short.

"You're so mean!"

With that, she started crying.

Naruto stared at the girl. With a sigh, he picked her back from the tree branch, placed her on his neck, and started walking back towards the camp.

"Point me to wherever your dining area is." He said with another sigh.

She squealed happily and pointed him towards the pavilion.

The sun had set, and the full moon was completely visible, illuminating the spread out land and its buildings beautifully. It seemed brighter than usual today, Naruto mused to himself.

A few kids were already at their tables, and more were coming in.

Chiron and Dionysus sat at a smaller table, set horizontal to all the other tables that were arranged in rows.

A few hundred kids, a centaur, a god, good food, and a brighter moon. What could go wrong?

* * *

Naruto was dining with Chiron and Dionysus, chomping on some grapes.

"They taste tastier, is it because you're the god of grapes?" Naruto looked towards Dionysus, his mouth full of grapes.

Dionysus tried not to get irritated, but it seemed like the blonde had made it his dearest ambition to annoy the hell out of him since the moment he stepped in the camp's borders.

"God of grapes, wine, vine and madness. Don't miss out on the last bit."

"Why diet coke when you're the god of wine?"

Dionysus groaned. Chiron smiled, "He has been forbidden from consuming any alcohol by his father, Naruto. It is a part of his punishment."

Naruto proceeded to pull out a bottle of Petrus from somewhere, pop off the cap, and start chugging it down.

Chiron looked at the bottle appreciatively, "Is that a bottle of the Pomerol Petrus?"

"Yes, $3000 a bottle old man. Oh, Dionysus, you want some?" He asked innocently.

Dionysus bloodshot eyes looked even more bloodshot, so bloodshot that his whole eye except the iris seemed to have gone red.

"Oh, you look quite drunk already! Should I tell your daddy on you?"

Dionysus eyes looked like they would pop any second, and Chiron looked alarmed. Naruto had gone too far.

And that was the moment the Hunters of Artemis chose to arrive, led by Artemis herself.

She walked into the camp, leading all her hunters.

"Ah, Lady Artemis, we are honored." Chiron said as all the demigods kneeled. Dionysus regarded her with a nod, his anger at Naruto mostly forgotten, because it was beneath him to use his powers on a mere mortal, and it probably was also because of the fact that said powers did not seem to work on said mortal. But it was mostly because of the former.

But Naruto, had no idea what to do if you found yourself in the presence of a goddess. In his previous encounters with goddess, they generally tended to be excessively violent, with horns and super-powerful red eyes on their foreheads.

They certainly did not come in the appearance of 11 year old girls.

Every camper bowed, and so did Chiron. Even Dionysus regarded her with a careful nod.

But Naruto kept sitting there, chugging down his bottle of three thousand dollar wine.

Zoe Nightshade was furious, to say in the least. She had never seen the man before. But this is why she hated men. No respect whatsoever, and throw a couple horrible habits in there, namely drinking and whoring, and there you have it, a MAN.

"Bow, before the great Lady Artemis. It is a disrespect that you even laid your disgusting eyes on her." Zoe would've said something to the blonde, but one of the other hunters beat her to it.

And yet, the man did not seem to care.

He kept drinking.

And they kept looking at him.

Artemis, with an unreadable expression that could mean anything, her hunters in barely suppressed rage at this disrespect, Chiron with wary eyes, Dionysus with amusement and the campers in horror.

Once he was done drinking the entire bottle, he calmly set it on his table. Then he looked at the hunter who had spoken.

And he said, "What did you say? I couldn't quite catch that, Im sorry."

Zoe repeated what the hunter had said, with much more visible display of barely controlled anger.

"Oh, you're suggesting that I was checking out this 11-year old girl? Sorry to disappoint you ladies, but I'm no pedophile."

Zoe gripped her bow so hard it would've broken if it wasn't magical.

"BOW." She said, her teeth clenched.

"How about, um, let me think, NO."

If she gripped her bow any harder, it was going to break, magical or not.

"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHO YOU ARE SPEAKING TO?" She spoke so loudly that even the tree nymphs watching scurried back to their trees.

"No, which is precisely the reason I am not bowing right now." Naruto said casually.

Zoe was going to lunge at him, but her mistress stopped her before she could put an arrow up this disrespectful man's rear.

"He is just ignorant Zoe, he is too simple to understand. But it would be good to learn some respect, boy. It might even save your life someday." Artemis spoke. Her voice was a young girl's, but it carried so much authority that it made the hair on the legs of satyrs 150 feet away stand.

"The only thing that saves my life is my blade."

"And if you don't learn to respect, you'll need it often. And it will not hold out everytime."

"You never know, it might." He said with a strange smile and a wink.

Artemis had enough of this non-sense. She supposed it would be fun to see him speak so much as a jackalope, but she fought the temptation.

"My hunters are tired, Chiron. We've been on the trail of a monster from all the way to Kansas. Have them accommodated at my cabin."

Chiron had already risen, and he said, "Yes, Lady Artemis."

He then called forward a girl of the Athena cabin to lead to the Artemis cabin. The campers were still on their knees. They had been sure that the tall blonde guy who seemed just a slightly older than they were would go off bounding into the forest as a jackalope, but it did not happen.

Chiron sent them off as well, and they scuttered to their cabins, with the memory of a man who had chugged a whole bottle of wine, right in front of Artemis, and then had the nerve to argue with her, AND her hunters, and still wasn't a jackalope.

Artemis spoke to Chiron again after the campers and the hunters had left.

"We shall leave tomorrow at dusk. This monster is unlike any other I have faced in the few previous centuries. This doesn't bode well for Olympus, Chiron."

Chiron nodded gravely, "I shall send information to the hunters if I acquire any, my Lady."

"Good." With that, and a glare in Naruto's direction, she walked back into the trees from which she had emerged from with the hunters.

"That was Artemis, the Goddess of the Hunt, Wilderness, Archery and the Moon. She is known for her hate she harbors towards the male gender, Naruto." Chiron told the blonde, who was drinking another bottle of wine now.

"Lucky for you, you aren't a jackalope yet. Try to pull a few more of these stunts, and do us all a favor and become one," Dionysus said with distaste, "Perhaps then you would be a little less bothersome."

* * *

Naruto was offered a room in the Big House to sleep for the night, but he declined, saying that he'd find a place, but he wanted to look around first, and with that, he had left.

The next morning, a few Hermes kids who were tasked with cleaning the stables because of their cabin's negative 2 marks in cleanliness found a blond man sleeping soundly, using a pile of hay as a blanket.

They recognised him from the previous night, the guy who'd annoyed Artemis and still lived. He was quite their role model now. But still, that wouldn't stop them from trying to rob him.

* * *

When the Hermes kids who had been tasked with cleaning the stables didn't return till it was noon, there was a major panic. The Hermes campers decided to look EVERYWHERE _but_ the stables. Then some Athena cabin kid told them to go look in the stables first.

And that was where they found a blond man sleeping soundly, using a hay pile as a blanket. Beside him lay the three Hermes kids who were on cleaning duty.

One of them had a black eye, the other had a swollen nose, and the other other had a big welt on his forehead. All three of them were out cold.

Deciding better than trying to rob him, they went to Chiron, who shook his head.

Things were going to change quite a lot with the blonde around. He could feel it in his horse bones.

* * *

**END**

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**Hope you liked the chapter! Do leave a review!**

**As for the story, I am quite confused with who I should pair Naruto with. When I wrote the first chapter, I had Aphrodite in mind, but for some reason I find myself shifting towards Artemis more, maybe even Calypso. But under no circumstances will this story be harem. I hate harems.**

**Anyways, do leave your opinions down in the reviews. It would be really appreciated.**

**And I was FUCKING OVERWHELMED by the amount of support the first chapter got. Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to write a review and favourite and follow and all.**

**See ya!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Heyo!**

**Another chapter for you guys, fresh and sizzling!**

**NOTICE : In desperate need of a beta-reader.**

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**And I am sorry about the whole previous chapter being bold for a while. It wasn't meant to be so but it glitched or something, I guess. Sorry to anyone who was bothered by it, and thank you to everyone who was kind enough to point it out.**

**christian myrddin : Exactly one of the reasons why Im swinging more towards Calypso as of now. Since she is still trapped on Ogygia and has no idea about the outer world, I feel like I can make their interactions and romance quite fun.**

**YuNiMos : Quite the contrary actually, most of the pairings are either the Virgin Goddesses or Aphrodite.**

**radeklegia : To be very honest, Rhea sounds just as good as an option as Calypso does, but I feel like I can make a Naruto-Calypso relationship much more spicy.**

**Kuman : Yeah, I never was planning to introduce the romance early on. Going to establish the story first, give Naruto a basic idea of the world, and then get into the pairings.**

**The Royal Huffle : I know right! I don't get why everyone isn't as much a fan of Calypso as they are of Arty. She deserves more loving for sure!**

**theronjohn325 : One of the major reasons I dont want the Virgin Goddesses as the pairings.**

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**Since all you guys have so many opinions about who to put into the pairings, I have put up a poll on my story profile. Check it out, and send me a PM if you want someone else to be added on there. If I feel like I can make their romance with Naruto interesting, I will surely put their name up.**

**Anyways, read and enjoy! :)**

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Naruto woke up with a horrible itch. He made a mental note to not sleep in horse stables and use hay piles as blankets again in the future.

He really wanted one of those winged horses, but he felt that Chiron and the gods wouldn't appreciate it too much if he just flew off with one.

He had a vague memory of three kids trying to rob him. He hoped he hadn't accidentally killed them. That would be quite a problem.

He got up, looked around himself. Hay and horses, and their dung. No sign of the three kids that he had knocked out, or maybe, but hopefully not killed.

He started walking towards the Big House. He figured that he had already stayed too long, and he had already gotten on the bad side of two gods, which was two more than he wanted the number to be. Not that he hadn't immensely enjoyed it.

He crossed the armory and the forge on his way.

There were white marble columns lining walls stained with soot. Chimneys on the roof pumped smoke over a gable with carvings of gods and monsters. Machinery working, fires crackling, and the sound of hammers against metal could be clearly heard.

A few dozen yards in front of the forge, was the armory. It was essentially just a large metal shed around the side of Athena's cabin.

The armory was very crowded for some reason.

He looked at the strange metals the various weapons seemed to be made of. He walked towards a sword suspended on a wall, with a description etched below where it hung.

'Endeixi : The Sword Gifted to the Mortal Genghis Khan by Zeus'

It was a beautiful blade. It had a dark blade, which had a slight curve. The blade was well balanced. Naruto ran his index finger on the edge of the blade. It had been the lightest of touches, but sure enough, there was now a cut on his finger.

Blood trickled down his finger. The cut healed as quickly as it had been made, and the skin stitched itself.

"That sword has never been used. It was gifted to Genghis Khan, but he preferred his own blade. Zeus was furious, and his refusal led to his death."

An African-American boy around the age of twelve or thirteen told him. He was buff for his age, and his hands were calloused, and the smell of the forges clung to him like perfume.

"Fun guy, this Zeus. Who're you, kid?" Naruto stopped his examination of the blade and looked at the kid.

"Charles Beckendorf, from the Hephaestus cabin." The kid replied.

"Why is the armory so crowded, Charles? And why are they all wearing armor? You guys look way too young for going off to a war." He remarked, staring at a nine year old with armor. It was way too big for the poor kid, and way too heavy. His helm covered his whole face.

"Its because we have capture the flag in half an hour. They're getting ready for that." Charles told the tall man.

"Capture the flag?" Naruto inquired.

"Yes. Oh, you're the new guy at camp," Charles said, as if he had just realized it, "I saw you bring that kid from the Aphrodite cabin, and that boy from Apollo cabin. We play capture the flag in the woods. Usually it is cabins against other cabins, but whenever the hunters arrive, all of us unite against them. They're really hard to beat."

"Sounds fun. Does this sword belong to anyone as of right now?" He asked, gesturing to the sword on the wall.

"No, it doesn't." He told him.

Naruto proceeded to pluck the sword off the wall, muttered a thanks to the boy, and continued his way towards the big house.

* * *

"YOU, YOU DISRESPECTFUL _MAN_," A female voice snarled at him as he turned around to look at its source. It was the girl from the other night. She had dark brown eyes, a slightly upturned nose, copper-colored skin, and the silver circlet braided into the top of her long, dark hair. She walked up to blonde gracefully, but the anger was evident.

She had said the word man like it was some kind of a horrible disease.

"Oh, you share the same hate towards men as your mistress does, eh?" Naruto asked, amused.

"I WILL WIPE THAT SMILE RIGHT OFF THY FACE!" She looked murderous.

"You could try."

And the huntress was about to lunge at him, but Chiron voice stopped her.

"Perhaps, you'll get the chance. How about you participate in capture the flag with the campers, Naruto?"

It was the perfect plan. Chiron knew that if he had allowed Zoe to attack Naruto, the kid would've left with her whole quiver used on him. By making Naruto participate, he could avoid a riot on his hands, since the Aphrodite kids looked just as angry as Zoe was. It would also present the perfect opportunity for Chiron to assess the mysterious blonde's skills.

At least that is what he had in mind, until the blonde refused.

"Too much work, old man. I'd rather do…anything else really, that doesn't involve me making the effort to move."

"Ah, there goes my perfect plan. And I see you carrying the Endeixi. It is a cursed sword Naruto, cursed by Zeus himself. It can kill with a single cut when used on the owner of the blade. That is how Genghis Khan died. When he refused the blade, Zeus cursed it and it was the same blade that took his life with a just a nick on his earlobe."

"Was he trying to get an ear piercing? Someone should've told the guy that you generally use needles for that sort of thing." Naurto remarked.

"And since you are the first person to touch the blade after Genghis Khan's death, its ownership belongs to you now."

What a cursed super deadly sword was doing on a wall with two dozen ADHD kids in the same room, he would never know.

"But have no worries, dear centaur. It seems the sword has grown _old_." He looked at the blood on his finger, from the cut by the sword. It seemed the sword liked him too much to kill him.

Chiron did not understand what Naruto meant, but he did not get time to question. He never noticed the blood on his finger.

Zoe spoke up yet again, "Why aren't thou taking part? Too scared to face the Hunters in battle? How manly of thee."

"On second thought Chiron, sign me up for this capture the flag thingy."

* * *

The demigods had been gathered up on one edge of the forest, while the Hunters occupied the other.

They were the red team, led by Zoe, occupying the east side of the Zephyros Creek, which ran through the middle of the woods.

The blue team, consisting of all the campers participating, were spread out on the west side of the creek. A young blue-eyed sandy blonde haired boy, a son of Hermes, led them.

He commanded demigods to cover various positions and discussed plans with other cabin's counsellors. The boy looked to be around 16 or 17.

Luke was running out of demigods to man the northern edge of their territory. He had carefully spread out all campers at his disposal, with the advice of the Athena cabin counsellor. He knew that the Hunters would go for an all-out assault focused on a particular region, because of their lesser numbers.

But should they choose to invade from the northern-most edge, they would surely lose their flag because of their weak defenses in the region. Then suddenly, his eyes fell on the blonde haired guy who had rescued a few kids and brought them to the camp, the one who had argued with Artemis. He seemed as if he was going to be participating as well.

"Are you a demi-god?" He threw a question at the blonde.

He looked at the sandy-haired boy who had asked him the question.

"No."

"Um, okay, are you playing too or what?"

"Yes, I am."

"Great! Could you hold the norther part of the-"

"No."

Luke was surprised.

"Listen, we don't have lot of people in the region. If the Hunters invade from there, they will get the flag for sure." He tried to make the blonde who looked just a couple years older than him understand.

"They won't," Naruto said, and started walking at the edge of a river. He walked for a couple minutes, stopped, and said, "They'll invade from right here."

"And I suppose they told you this so you could win easily?" Luke asked him, the sarcasm evident in his voice.

"Obviously," he winked at him, "Who can say no to this handsome face?"

Luke face-palmed. He told the him, "See man, this might be your first capture the flag, but this isn't a joke."

"Who said the game is a joke? You being captain is the joke."

Luke groaned. He had no idea what to say to make the blonde listen.

He got ready to pounce into the enemy territory soon as the match was about to start. And when it did, the blonde turned out to be right.

The hunters invaded from exactly the spot Naruto had been standing on.

Zoe Nightshade came in like storm. Arrows flew here and there, and campers fell everywhere. The arrows weren't aimed to kill, just disable. There were arrows that released nets and there were arrows that caused minor explosions. There were arrows with blunted edges that could give you quite the bruise, and then there were arrows that released fart gas, earning quite a few gagging sounds from campers unfortunate enough to be the victim.

Luke had spread his demigods too thin. Back-ups were too far away, and the ones closest had already fallen. Victory was clear for Zoe and her hunters, as the flag was clearly in her few, a hundred yards away.

As she walked towards the flag, a voice rang out from the tree above her.

"You're pretty good with that bow."

And there he was, with his eyes closed, with one of his legs hanging down, laid out on a branch of the tree.

Zoe had been searching for the blonde from the moment she entered the enemy territory. She had never been aiming for the flag. Her target was the disrespectful blonde.

As soon as she caught sight of him, her hand flew to the arrows in her quiver. Quick as lightning, she pulled out an arrow with a blunted edge and nocked it, and let it fly.

But as soon as she released her index and thumb fingers and the arrow flew, the blonde jumped from his branch to another one, quicker than she would've believed.

"Or not as good as I initially thought." He said, as the arrow thudded where he had been lying a moment before.

Zoe let another arrow fly and the blonde jumped to another branch.

She gritted her teeth, and started firing in rapid succession. Her hands were a blur, as she pulled out arrows from her quiver, nocked them and let loose.

A short while later, her last arrow was let loose, and her last arrow missed as well, as the blonde jumped onto another branch.

Not one arrow had so much as grazed him.

He finally jumped down with a chuckle, and pulled out his cursed blade, the Endeixi.

"Time to test this blade's edge."

Zoe pulled out two hunting knives, and as soon as his feet touched the ground, and lunged at him.

She slashed horizontally with her knife, which should've left a 3 inch cut on the much taller blonde's chest. But the blonde stepped back just as the blade was about to make contact.

Zoe used her other knife to slash down vertically, but the blonde stepped back again.

Her next strike was stopped by Naruto's dark blade. So was the one after that. And the one after that.

She slashed at him like a lunatic and he intercepted every strike with Endeixi, the Hunters looking on in surprise and awe, too scared to let loose an arrow, fearing that they might accidentally hit Zoe.

This went on for a couple of minutes, before Zoe jumped away to make some distance between them.

"You're quite good with those knives too." He said with a smile, a taunting one.

Zoe would've said something, but she was out of breath. She had hunted by Artemis's side for thousands of years, but not a lot of monsters her managed to survive the onslaught of her knives, assuming they survived her volley of arrows first.

But this Naruto, who claimed to be a simple mortal, had. He couldn't be just a simple human. No simple mortal human could fight with that level of agility and dexterity.

"Oh, won't you give it another whirl?" He asked with that irritating smile of his, as he walked closer to her.

She feinted with her right hand, and stopped it mid-air to attack with her left. It was a basic move, and the blonde intercepted it, as she had expected he would.

She then proceeded to thrust herself upwards in the air and throw both her knives at the blonde. An unorthodox move, but the blonde deflected both the knives with a single flick of his sword.

Zoe looked stunned.

"An unorthodox move, and unwise, since you're unarmed now." The blonde's tone sounded disappointed, as if he had expected better from her.

Then Zoe proceeded to pull out a spare knife from her boots, and threw it at the blonde in one smooth gesture. It was so quick that inexperienced hunters and campers didn't even notice her do it.

Zoe was sure that the attack would get the annoying blonde man. The feint had just been a distraction, and the jumping and throwing of the knife was a move to make the blonde believe that she had thrown the last weapons in her possession. Then she had made a show of looking stunned.

She had expected that his guard would be dropped, since he believed that she was out of weapons to use.

And as he dropped his guard, she would throw the knife hidden in her boot, and it would impale itself into the blonde. Or it would've, if he hadn't deflected that too.

"Oh, I knew that you had one hidden up in your boot," he said with a smile and a wink, "I said you were unarmed to make you believe that I believed you were unarmed."

That was the moment when a loud cheer erupted close by. Luke had returned with the red flag.

Hearing their cheer, the other campers started cheering too.

They knew that the game had been won.

The Hunters were frozen in their spots, in surprise of the fight that had just taken place and in anger that they had lost.

Zoe was stunned, and for real this time.

She stood still looking at the back of the blonde who was walking away to the Big House, out of breath and tired, knowing the fact that she had just lost.

Unknown to the Hunters and the campers, Artemis had watched the whole battle take place. When Zoe had charged into the enemy territory with half a dozen hunters and had disabled all the campers in the region with arrows, she had been sure that victory would be theirs.

But that was before Naruto had spoken out from the branch of that tree. He had never once attacked, but just had delayed Zoe enough for the campers to capture their flag.

'_Just who is this man?'_

* * *

"**Quite the epitome of show off you are." **Kurama spoke in his mind.

'_But you can't deny that the look on the girl's face wasn't worth it.'_

And they both laughed, fox and man.

"**No, no I can't."**

Naruto was aware that the weird child-goddess had been watching the whole thing take place. That was one of the reasons why he hadn't attacked and just relied on defense. He did not want these Olympians discovering about him just yet. He had lived long enough in isolation, without any gods and goddesses to worry about, and he preferred it that way. So he had just displayed the bare minimum of the skills he possessed, just enough necessary to deflect every attack the girl would throw at him.

But just that much seemed quite enough to put the Goddess of the Moon and Chiron on edge, if the expressions on their faces were any indication.

"Karate training?" Chiron asked him.

"You got that right." Naruto replied with a smile.

Chiron sighed. Getting the strangely skilled blonde to talk would be near impossible unless he wanted to himself.

It didn't take long for the campers to notice the blonde who seemed to be silently trying to sneak off somewhere. Neither did it take long for them to rush up to him and lift him up on their shoulders, screaming and laughing.

Naruto's irritated groan did not matter; the campers had finally won against the campers after a losing streak 3 decades long.

Soon, the campers rushed off to the amphitheatre, for their nightly sing-along. The fire in the amphitheatre burned bright and 30 feet tall, reflecting the excessively joyous mood of the campers.

It seemed like if the Hunters had been seated in the amphitheatre instead of the campers, the fire wouldn't have burned at all.

The gloom in their midst was noticeable, but the campers didn't care. They happily sang a song about how their grandma fought like a demon.

Luke walked up to Naruto.

"Good game, man." He said, and held out a s'more from a tray for the blonde.

He smiled and took the WHOLE tray from him.

"By the way, how did you know that they were going to invade from that spot?" Luke asked him.

"Oh, I told you already, they told me that." He smiled.

Luke sighed and knew it would be useless trying to get the blonde to speak. He sat beside him.

"So to what do I owe the pleasure of your company?" Naruto asked, looking at the flames that burned even higher now.

"Who are you? I heard about your fight with Zoe Nightshade. She has a reputation for being the most dangerous hunter of Artemis. How did you survive? You say that you are not a demigod, but how can a simple human accomplish such a feat?"

Naruto turned his head sideways to look at him. He looked at him right in the eye with a small smile, and said, "You'd be surprised by what a simple human can achieve."

Naruto looked back at the flames, "Just because you are the children of gods or have their blessings, you guys think you are so high and mighty. You look down on humans. You look down on their simplicity. You underestimate them. And that is what leads to your fall."

The flames of the campfire illuminated the young blonde's face in a strange, eerie way.

"The gods fight their fights and scheme their schemes up in heaven, the monsters fight their fights and scheme their schemes down in this Tartarus that your Chiron spoke of. And you demigods fight off monsters. Sometimes you kill them, sometimes they kill you. Nevertheless, stuck between all of this, humanity continues to survive. They continue to endure in their rotten world. WE continue to endure. So, an advice to you from a simple human, Luke Castellan, never underestimate the power of simplicity. And the strength of humanity."

And in that moment, while they were seated beneath the flames of their campfire, this blonde did not look quite as young.

"Not heaven, Olympus."

Naruto looked at Luke, "What'd you say?"

"You said the gods scheme their schemes in heaven. They don't live up in heaven. They live on Mount Olympus. Heaven is actually down in the Underworld."

Naruto groaned, "Okay can you all STOP systematically picking my beliefs apart!"

Luke smiled, which soon turned into a full-blown laughter.

Naruto smiled too, and the flames seemed to burn a tad bit brighter than it had before.

* * *

The next morning, seeing Luke's bravery in capture the flag game against the Hunter, Chiron finally agreed to give him a quest at the request of Hermes.

A quest to retrieve a Golden Apple from the Garden of Hesperides.

Luke couldn't have looked any more happier.

"What does this Golden Apple do anyway?" Naruto asked, as he walked in the deck of the Big House, where Chiron was talking to Luke, giving him tips and answering his questions, since it was his first quest ever.

"Uh...it doesn't actually do anything. The quest itself is an honor, which is enough." Luke told him.

"But didn't Hercules do the same thing? What is the point in repeating history and doing deeds already done by others?" Naruto said as he sat down onto one of the chairs.

The fact hit Luke like a brick.

Naruto had said the truth. Hercules got glory by retrieving the apples because he had been the first person to do so. Luke wouldn't receive any glory. He would just be following in the footsteps of a hero long dead.

Luke realized that his father had only given him this quest because he had continually bugged him for it. It was given to him so he could stop bothering his father.

He clenched his fists. Tears threatened to fall from his eyes.

All those years running from monsters and trying to get his father's attention, doing everything and more and putting his life at risk countless times, and this is what he gets in return.

But he wouldn't be seen crying in front of Chiron and Naruto. He got up, turned his head away from both of them so they couldn't see his tears, and started walking away with strained movements.

Naruto looked puzzled. Chiron sighed.

"Did I say something wrong?" He asked Chiron, still puzzled.

"No Naruto, you just spoke the truth. However, it's the truth that hurts the most sometimes." Chiron said and made a move to follow Luke.

Naruto could clearly see that the retreating boy was crying, if his trying to hide the fact so much was any indication.

"Wait, Chiron. I did this, I will fix it."

With this, he got up and walked in the direction Luke had gone towards.

He found him in the woods, hacking away at a tree with his sword.

"Is he dead yet?" Naruto asked him.

He didn't make a move to hide his tears now. He kept hacking away at the tree without a care in the world like a madman.

Naruto sighed, and sat down at the foot of another tree, with his back leaning against its trunk.

"Just let me know when you've let it out."

Luke seemed not to hear him. He kept hacking, and hacking, and hacking until he couldn't anymore. His sword fell from his hands, and he leaned against the damaged trunk of the tree.

"I tried…so hard to get his attention. I wanted him to notice me so much," Luke said, "And this is what he gives me. A deed already done. A meaningless quest. You were right, Naruto."

"A deed already done? Yes. But meaningless? No."

Luke looked down at him, where he was sitting at the foot of the tree.

"You said this was your first quest, right?" He asked him.

"Yeah, but-"

"So maybe, he is testing you. As you said, he didn't pay much attention to you before. He does not know you well. Maybe this quest is a test to evaluate your capabilities. Maybe he is giving you an easy quest, a quest already done, to ready you for something bigger he has planned."

Luke looked at him with wide eyes. As much as he wanted to hate his dad, Naruto had a point.

"See kid, it is easy to pity yourself."

"I am not pitying myself!" Luke replied angrily.

"That is exactly what you are doing, Luke. Stop feeling sorry for yourself. Go and complete the damn quest. Do your best. Give your all, as you have always done. And then when you return victorious, we'll see if Hermes gives you another deed already done. Then we'll see what your father's true motives were."

Multiple emotions ran through his heart. The most prominent one was that persistent feeling of wanting to prove himself. Even if he had proven himself ever since he fled his home, and even before that, it didn't matter. He would prove himself again now.

"Thank you, Naruto. I needed this."

"Yes, kid, you did. As I said, easy to pity yourself, but not as easy to get up and do something about it."

* * *

**Done! Leave a review, it'll be greatly appreciated!**

**Also, I am still looking for a beta-reader. Send me a PM if you're willing to look the chapters over and correct any mistakes and just improve the overall quality.**

**And I am actually surprised by how much support you guys showed towards the second chapter, even though it was so unreasonably delayed.**

**Keep up the support, I love y'all, and see ya!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Heyo!**

**NOTICE : In desperate need of a beta-reader.**

**So here is the latest update for the Infamous Irksome Blonde, but before you get to reading, a few review responses :**

* * *

**The Godzilla : Thanks a lot, and that persona is what I had been aiming to achieve. Glad to know its worked out fine!**

**TBNRkurama : You will know in time. Be patient and read on bud :)**

**the-Contadiction : Since I have read the Heroes of Olympus completely, learning the fact that Leo is in fact dating Calypso was a big turn off. As of right now, Rhea is at the top of the competition.**

**Guest : I really dont want this story to meddle into the Egyptian and Norse pantheons, just a Greek one is fine. Also, I haven't read Kane Chronicles :p**

**Guest : Your idea sounds amazing too. I think I can work with the idea that Naruto doesn't get into a relationship and rather bangs every goddess in his way lol**

**GamerX568 : Chiron knows its not karate. Because being honest, no amount of martial arts training makes you capable of sending a five hundred pound man-bull flying away with a single kick. Chiron also knows no amount of pestering Naruto would get him to open up, so he takes the sarcasm.**

* * *

**IMPORTANT: Something that I just want to point out and clear something about the universe this is set in. No Camp-Jupiter exists. Its purely only Greek gods, and a couple of years before Percy joined camp. Im sorry if exclusion of the Roman pantheon set any of you all, but I never liked that particular idea anyway. No Roman pantheon means no Roman demigods and no demigods on the Heroes Of Olympus as well. **

**There, all done. Now you can read on, and maybe even drop a review if you want :)  
**

* * *

Luke would leave for the quest at mid-day. The Hunters had already left a few days ago, in pursuit of the monster that troubled Artemis. He would have thought about going with them, except they were headed east, towards Maine, while his destination lied in the west.

Argus would give him a ride, to the nearest bus depot in Manhattan. He would then accept a favor from his dad, who was the God of Travellers and Roads to help him get to California quickly.

The Garden of Hesperides was located on Mount Tamalpais in California.

Naruto was going to be travelling with them to Manhattan, since he was going to leave camp as it is, so might as well save himself some trouble and hop in Argus' van.

They were to leave in 15 minutes. Luke was enthusiastically checking if he had everything he would need for his first ever quest. Naruto's words had moved him, and given him the hope that he had initially lost.

Naruto sat at the porch playing pinochle with Chiron and Dionysus.

Naruto also seemed to be winning.

Every single round.

And Dionysus seemed to be losing.

Every single round.

Chiron managed to score a win here and there, but both he and Dionysus had already grown several dollars poorer.

"I swear this kid is cheating somehow!" Dionysus had just lost another 5 dollars to Naruto.

He smiled and raised his hands in an 'I am innocent gesture'.

"Sure, it has nothing to do with the fact that I may be better at this than you."

Chiron spoke, "This is hardly a game of skill, and more of luck. But I have to say, he seems to have the devil's luck at that."

Dionysus scoffed, "Sure he does."

He reached out for his diet-coke can, but found Naruto already sipping on it. He grunted and made another can appear, but just as he was about to reach out for it, Naruto dropped the previous can that was now empty and grabbed the new one.

After a long swig, he put it down and grumbled a "thanks".

Dionysus shook his head and made another can appear. He had grown quite used to the disrespectful blonde trying to set him off by now. And he also knew that if he did something to set him off, and he didn't get set off, it set off the blonde in return.

And he was right. For Naruto, nothing was quite as frustrating as a man who wouldn't get frustrated, no matter how hard you try to frustrate him.

But he wasn't known as the 'Prankster Demon for Hell' in his good old days for nothing. He had a special gift of frustrating people.

He did that by winning another round.

"HOWW?!" Dionysus all but screamed in frustration.

And that was the moment a little girl chose to walk in on them. She was around 10 years old and had sharp grey eyes.

Chiron saw her and smiled in a fatherly manner.

"Ah, good morning Annabeth. Did you need something?"

Annabeth said, "Goodmorning, Chiron. Luke told me to tell Naruto that they were running late."

"Well then, tell them that if they're already late, there isn't no harm in being a little later," Naruto said to her, "I ain't leaving till I rob this man of all his belongings."

He gestured to Dionysus with a smile, who scoffed.

"I know better than to get myself legitimately robbed. I've lost enough today. Now, I shall mourn." And with that, Dionysus got up and started walking towards the door of the Big House.

"By which you mean chug cans of diet-coke."

"Since I am forbidden from drinking wine."

"My heart goes out to you." Naruto said, with mock sympathy.

"Your genuine feelings of sympathy are greatly appreciated." Dionysus said, and shut the door behind him.

Naruto turned to see Chiron smiling.

"WHAT?" Naruto asked him.

Chiron's smile grew a little more.

"I suppose you've got quite a nice friendship going on here."

"I had a drunkard for a teacher and a drunkard for a motherly figure. What's wrong with a drunkard for a friend? Even if said drunkard isn't allowed to actually _drink_."

Chiron laughed lightly, "Now, please do not delay the boy's quest any further. And do not stay here any longer. The gods alone know how unwilling I am to ever play pinochle with you ever again."

It was Naruto's turn to laugh. Then he gestured to Annabeth to lead the way.

As they walked down the stairs of the porch, Annabeth said to him, "I saw you cheating."

Naruto looked at the girl, "Did you now?"

"You could clearly see Mr. D's cards in the glass of the window behind him, but I don't know how you could see Chiron's cards."

"Hush now girl, don't go around spilling all my secrets." Naruto said, trying to look alarmed.

"How did you see Chiron's cards?" She asked him.

"Are you that convinced that I couldn't have at least played a little fairly and not cheated by trying to see Chiron's cards?" Naruto asked her incredulously.

"You were already cheating by seeing Mr. D's cards in the window. So you wouldn't have hesitated to see Chiron's cards as well if you could."

Naruto smiled sheepishly, "Heh, I suppose that's true. You're quite observant for such a young girl."

Annabeth blushed at the compliment, but said, "You haven't answered my question."

"Agh, won't let it go, will you? Very well then. The dew on the leaves of the plant near the porch were at a perfect angle to reflect his cards."

Annabeth looked doubtful, as if he was trying to be sarcastic, "Are you trying to make a joke?"

"No, not at all," Naruto said solemnly.

"So you saw the reflection of his cards in the dew drops? There is no way they should've been visible from that far away!" Annabeth said stubbornly

Naruto laughed lightly.

"You'll find a lot of things that you thought invisible to be visible, but only if you look carefully."

They reached the van after a short walk.

Luke saw him and shouted angrily.

"WHAT MADE YOU SO LATE?"

"Oh, I was carrying out a robbery." Naruto said and got in the shotgun seat of the van.

Luke looked puzzled and Annabeth smiled.

Soon, him, Luke and Argus were speeding away, with Argus driving and Luke sitting in the back.

Naruto looked at the driver, and on his cheek he saw a pair of…were those _eyes?_

Not just a pair, but multiple pairs, he came to realize. Argus had eyes all over his visible body, his arms, his cheeks, his neck, everywhere.

Naruto felt sorry for the guy.

Meanwhile, Argus had seen Naruto get a good look at him for the first time. If he was surprised, he didn't show it. And people's first reaction to seeing his eyes was usually not the sad expression that Naruto had on his face for some reason.

"Do you have eyes on your ass too?" He asked him.

Argus was positively surprised. So surprised, in fact, that he momentarily lost control of the car and it swerved slightly.

"I didn't mean to be rude of course, I was just curious. Must be incredibly difficult to sit on your eyes." Naruto said after seeing that he had given offense.

"I wonder if it is incredibly difficult for YOU to not be so annoying." Luke said to him.

Naruto smiled, "Its my talent."

Luke groaned, "You're impossible."

"As impossible as the chances of you completing the quest?" He teased the young demigod.

Luke groaned, louder this time.

He turned on the radio of the car and increased the volume. Even radio right now would be better than the annoying comments of this irksome blonde.

'_Earthquakes continue to shake the state of Maine down to its very cores, as they have for the past day. Richter scale puts the magnitude of the latest earthquake to 4.2. Earthquakes are rare in the state, and this phenomenon of continuous earthquakes has baffled various scientists looking in on this weird occurrence.'_

They all exchanged looks. Maine was where the Hunters of Artemis and the goddess Artemis herself had been going towards. This couldn't be a coincidence.

Luke had his quest to see to and Argus had his driving to see to.

But Naruto, however, had nothing to see to. Despite his claims that said otherwise, not one person at Camp Half-Blood believed that the first thing Naruto would do after getting back to his apartment was not sleep.

"Isn't Maine where that goddess and her girl scout were going?" He inquired.

"Yeah. The timing is too convenient to be just a coincidence." Luke answered from the backseat.

"I thought so too. Maybe they finally encountered that monster they had been searching for."

"But if hunting one monster can cause tremors in a whole state, then it really must be a formidable one." Luke wondered.

Naruto thought for a moment, "I think I am going to go to a trip to Maine."

Luke looked surprised, "What for?"

"Why, I obviously can't pass up an opportunity to see how you Greeks fight, although I don't have too high expectations from what I've already seen."

Luke looked annoyed. Annoyed became a defining characteristic for anyone anywhere near a few yards of the blonde. His ability to annoy was unheard of.

Meanwhile, the radio station continued:

'_Scientists have determined that the tremors have been originating from the Hamlin Peak, the second-highest mountain in Maine. However, the exact cause of the tremors remains unknown, posing a mystery to a quite a number of scientists. Keep listening for live updates on the tremors as we receive them.'_

"How are you going to get there?" Luke asked Naruto.

"I wasn't being serious. Although, now that you mention it…"

Sasuke's ability to shadow-travel suddenly came across his thoughts. He could be there in just a couple seconds. And this opportunity to assess if these gods and goddesses posed a threat to him would be too convenient to pass up. He also did not know if this Goddess of the Moon, Artemis, was capable enough to destroy this monster, or if the monster posed any threat to the civilian population of the state.

In just a short while, Argus dropped Naruto off at his apartment in Fourth Avenue, close to the Fifth Avenue, where the Empire State Building stood tall and proud.

He still had a hard time imagining there was a whole damn mountain on top of it, but he had seen weirder things after all. As he walked to his apartment, his thoughts wandered to how much his lifestyle had changed just in a few days. He was living a peaceful, ignorant life, as he had been for centuries now, but being fate's favorite chew-toy, he obviously wasn't allowed to take a break that lasted more than a couple centuries. He had gotten involved in all of this divine bullshit, between gods and their children and monsters and weird horse-humans. He had gotten involved despite his pledge to not affect the course of history anymore, because he had affected enough courses by now that it certainly did not give the same kick that it did a thousand years ago.

See, this is one of the problems that comes with being over-powered and immortal: you grow bored with things.

And you grow tired. Of everything.

But he pushed these thoughts aside, as he walked to his bedroom.

He closed the curtains, making the room partially dark, as some sunlight managed to pass through the cloth of the curtain, bathing the room in a cool orange light. He then took off his shirt.

He put two fingers on the centre of his chest, and traced an invisible path. He made a couple deft swirls here and there, and in a couple seconds, the path he had traced with his fingers glowed black on his chest.

It was a seal, elegantly crafted onto his chest, which sealed a major chunk of his chakra and most of his powers.

He walked to the mirror after the glow had died down. He looked himself in the eye, and his iris morphed into a gradient red colour with three tomoe surrounding the pupil.

He didn't think he would need to go as far as to use the Sharingan if he got into a tough situation, but he had learned to never underestimate an opponent. And especially not an opponent you know nothing about.

The seal on his chest sealed most of his powers, along with the Sharingan. He had multiple stages designed into the seal. The first stage allowed a seventh of the total sealed power to be released, which included his Sharingan. There were seven such stages, and unlocking each stage gave his access to a greater chunk of his abilities and chakra.

He had not fought at his full potential for several thousand years now, and he hoped that he never would have to. He had already caused enough death and destruction.

Naruto walked out of his bedroom and proceeded towards the fridge. Fighting with a full stomach might be discouraged by some, but they were pussies. Nothing as good as a fight after a cup of ramen. He noticed that the fridge was upside down somehow, and empty.

He then noticed upon further inspection, a large black mass of fur curled up in the kitchen.

"UGH SASUKE, NOT AGAIN!"

* * *

He emerged at the base of the mountain where the monster was supposed to be, on the back of his pet hellhound.

He just felt as if he had just experienced a roller coaster ride, except a thousand times faster, through cold darkness. He hadn't been able to see a damn thing after Sasuke had sunk into the shadow of their building in the alley below, and he hadn't activated the Sharingan to get a better vision lest he see something he regrets seeing. After all, no one could say what went down in this infinite realm of darkness.

They emerged from the shadow of the mountain itself. It rose tall and proud to their north, and to their south was another mountain, which seemed just as tall, but he knew that it wasn't because Hamlin Peak was the second tallest mountain of the state, and the tallest one was a mile and a half away.

They were on a huge rock that jutted out of the side of the mountain. Naruto walked towards the edge of the rock, and looked down.

"Around a few thousand feet up. Which means we still have a few thousand feet to go before we reach the summit."

Sasuke looked at him innocently.

As he looked down the edge, a massive roar resonated across the mountains, coupled with an earthquake so strong; Naruto almost lost his footing and toppled over the edge.

But fortunately, he held his balance as the whole Hamlin Peak shuddered like it had been dropped into freezing water.

He looked at his hell-hound, and said, "Well, you got me here; now get me to the peak."

And he hopped on to his back again.

Sasuke was quick for a dog as large as a damn bus. He bounded up from the huge rock they had been on and ran up the sloping surface. As soon as they were out of the thick forest of pine trees, Naruto spied a trail close by. It was a simple track of crushed grass and rocks, and Sasuke ran along it. As he made his way towards the summit of the huge mountain, more tremors greeted them.

Pretty soon, they came up on an enormous wall that encompassed the whole summit. It was a barrier made of rocks, and it rose around fifty feet high, blocking the summit from view.

Sounds of a battle could be heard up ahead, with a few loud crashes and explosions here and there.

Naruto hopped off his pet's back and made his way towards the wall. He started walking up the wall. Sasuke looked at his owner strangely. Never had he seen a trick such as this.

As Naruto came up on the top of the wall, the scene of a battle unfurled around him.

There were around fifty hunters, who were fighting strange giants with six arms. They looked like clay statues, and they were eight feet tall each. They were far superior in numbers as compared to the hunters, and they pelted them with rocks they made in their palms.

But that wasn't the major attraction of the battle. An 11-year-old girl in pure white regal clothes was fighting a giant around 35 feet tall. He had snakes for feet and his hair fell on his shoulders in greenish-brown locks. He was a disgusting sight to see. A silver arrow every here and there could be seen, embedded into his flesh. However, they were mere pins against the hulking giant.

He was trying to swat the little girl out of the sky who was floating around and firing arrows every now and then and his snake legs hissed and snapped whenever she came into range.

An arrow was fired, and it embedded into his shoulder and exploded, but it wasn't enough. The giant let out another grunt of pain, and put out the flames on his shoulder with his left hand. The shoulder was horribly burnt and sizzling, but leaves from nearby trees inside the walls floated towards the giant and settled on his wounds. When they fell away, they were all dried-up and his wounds were healed.

This routine kept up for as long as the blonde had the patience to see. The girl, who could only be Artemis, would float around in the air and fire arrows, and leaves would heal the giant's wounds.

The hunters weren't faring much better. Around a dozen of them had fallen, with wounds to the head, and more kept falling.

Then Naruto Namikaze jumped into the battle.

He spied Zoe somewhere, firing arrows in rapid succession wherever she could see something with more than two arms. A six-armed giant crumpled into dust every time an arrow was let loose.

He hopped around the mud giants and the hunters and popped up next to her.

"Fancy seeing you here." He said and flashed her a smile.

Zoe looked surprised at first, then alarmed, then angry.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?" She shouted at him.

He suddenly reached out for something in his pocket, and pulled out a strange leaf-shaped blade and flicked it towards her in a smooth movement.

It was quicker than she would have believed, and she had no time to cry out or move out of the way.

However, when it hit a particularly large piece of rock that was sailing towards her mid-air, split it into multiple pieces, and flew straight through and embedded into the skull of an earthborn, she realized he hadn't been aiming for her after all.

"Helping, of course." He said with another smile.

The battle was too serious to argue. She had seen the blonde's skill in battle, and if even a moment's distraction could result in a rock knocking her out. She just made an irritated sound, and said, "Then, help."

The hunters and Artemis were in a sticky situation. Soon as they had chased the scent of the monster to the summit of the Hamlin Peak, the walls that suddenly emerged around them had trapped them all. Then the giant appeared, and the assault of the Earthborn began.

The Hunters were trapped and could not leave, and Artemis couldn't change into her divine form, lest she risk killing all her Hunters who accidentally looked at her. And even Artemis was no match for a giant in her 11-year-old form. They could not call on Olympus for aid; the walls that formed a circle around them cut them off from the world outside. It wasn't just the walls, the place brimmed with ancient magic which trapped them in a barrier.

Magic more ancient than the gods or the giants themselves.

Naruto's hand darted into his pocket, and he pulled out those strange knives, worn onto his fingers by the ring at the end of their handle. Every time his hand swung, five earthborns crumbled to dust, as he nimbly darted around the rocks thrown at him.

He jumped up as a large rock was thrown at him, and kicked it right back into the face of the earthborn who threw it. Before the rock even hit its owner, he kicked another rock in mid-air which sailed towards another earthborn. Both crumpled to dust.

With every moment of his, a couple earthborn were converted to dust. He spied a young girl, around 13, surrounded by six earthborn. She reached out for another arrow from her quiver, but to her, dismay, she noticed it was empty.

Naruto quickly made his way towards the girl, and kicked an earthborn in its torso, sending it flying away several feet behind, and he broke into dust and mud on impact with the ground. The heads of all remaining five of the earthborn traced the flight of their brother simultaneously as he soared through a few feet above the ground.

Their distraction cost them dearly. Naruto pulled out two kunai from his pocket, which had a storage seal inked inside them. He lunged to his right, and cut off the arms on one side of two earthborn in range with a smooth upwards cut with both his arms.

As six arms hit the ground and turned to mud, Naruto did not even give them a chance to feel their pain. He ducked under a thrown rock and plunged the kunai into the tummy of the two earthborn.

It felt like stabbing a sand-castle. Even as mud leaked from where he had stabbed the earthborns, he pushed his hand in further, and he cut his way through the small giants' guts and his hands plunged out on the other side. They melted into a pile of mud.

He jumped into the air to avoid more rocks throw at him, and quickly turned mid-air, arcing his hand all the way around and letting the kunai on his left hand loose. It sailed towards the earthborn directly behind him and embedded itself right into its grown.

It did not cry out, but its pain was clearly visible on its melting face.

The remaining two earthborn had a pained expression on their faces as their hands subconsciously reached out and covered their groins.

He turned around to both of them.

"So much for being 8 foot tall and having six arms. Guess you guys aren't all that hard down there." He said mockingly, and jumped between them and sliced off their necks in one, smooth spin.

As they crumpled in mud around either side of him, Zoe shouted, "Don't bother with them. They'll keep coming long as that giant over there is alive!"  
Naruto looked towards the 35 foot giant, who was still fighting Artemis, flying around mid-air.

"You mean Mr. Big and Mean right there?" He said as he pointed towards the giant.

"Yes! We'll deal with the Earthborn, help Lady Artemis if you can!" Zoe looked like she wanted to say something else, but she was interrupted by an earthborn who was unfortunate enough to come in her way.

"Oh, young lady, I sure _can_." He said with a grin, and made his way towards the giant.

He had fought bigger things before. This was not anything new to him. He began running towards the giant.

Seeing the familiar blonde running towards the direction of the giant, Artemis was alarmed.

"Leave, mortal! This is Gration, you are no match for him! Warn Chiron! Warn Olympus of his rising!" Artemis shouted at him urgently. In her distraction, the giant smacked the back of his palm into the moon goddess.

She was sent flying over in the direction of the walls. She smacked into the walls, hard, and they cracked. But even as she fell towards the ground, the cracks began filling up as mud and stones rose from the ground itself to mend the walls. In no time, they were good as new, revealing no sign that a divine goddess had smacked into them just a second before.

"Why bother Olympus when I can help it?" Naruto said, and jumped up into the air.

The thrust behind his jump was enough to send him in level to Gration's eyes.

He had quick reflexes for being 35-foot tall. His right hand darted to the blonde and he caught him between his fingers.

"The Goddess of the Moon herself has not been able to beat me, what do you think a mere human such as you will be able to do?" His voice was deep and gruff, as if he had a really bad throat. His eyes had mirth and mock in them.

"Beat you."

Naruto grabbed the thumb and index finger of the giant, and started pushing them away. Gration's grip on him started loosening.

"Impossible, such strength for a human-" He did not get a chance to finish. As soon as the grip was loose enough, Naruto slipped out of the giant's palm and darted towards his face. He thrust his foot into the giant's forehead.

Gration lost his balance and fell backwards, but before he hit the ground, another kick was planted into his chest. The impact felt like a bullet hitting him. A really big, really strong bullet.

He smacked into the ground, crushing half a dozen Earthborn underneath him.

However, the giant did not give the blonde a chance to continue his assault. He got up the quickest in the history of fallen giants getting up, and grabbed the blonde in his palm.

He crushed the Naruto between his fist. It should have been enough to squeeze the intestines out of a normal human, and even a demigod, but Naruto was neither, as Gration promptly discovered a moment later.

He let out a scream, as a blade suddenly protruded from the back of his hand. The blade was pushed towards the junction of the middle and index fingers, and it split the giant's palm into two. Golden blood gushed out of his severely damaged left hand.

Leaves and grass floated towards the wound, and it began to heal, but this time, Naruto did not stop his assault. He fell down to the giant's feet, and positioned the blade of his sword next to the head of the snake on the giant's left foot.

As he had suddenly left Gration's field of vision, it gave him a momentarily advantage of keeping him hidden.

With the blade positioned right next to the snake's huge neck, Naruto ran, keeping the blade in positon. The blade ripped right through its neck, beheading the snake. Naruto continued running, and cleaved through the head of the snake on his other foot.

Golden blood gushed out from the giant's feet, and he let out a scream of pain. His hand had already healed however, and he quickly punched the blonde standing on the ground from above.

The impact of his huge fist was enough to make the ground itself crack, but it cracked at the feet of the blonde. The punch had been stopped mid-air by the hands of the blonde, both extended upwards.

The giant retracted his hand backwards quickly, in an effort to send the blonde flying. However, he grabbed Endeixi that he had let fall to the ground to stop Gration's punch between his feet, and arched his legs upwards. The blade between his feet stabbed into the wrist of the giant, and blood gushed out. Naruto held his fist in a firm grip, grabbing onto his middle finger with both hands. He stood on the giant's palm, and pulled.

Putting all of his strength in, the nerves on his face and arms swelling from the effort, he managed to rip out the finger from his palm with nothing but his bare hands.

The finger was almost as big as him, and it fell to the ground in another shower of golden blood. Gration screamed from the combined pain in his feet and hands.

Artemis had joined into the battle. Her doubts about the blonde surviving the battle had gone the moment he poked his dark sword into his palm.

She fired explosive arrows into the wounds of the giant, burning the leaves and grass away before they could heal him.

She had fought him in the Gigantomachy, which seemed like eons ago. He was one of the giants who weren't born to slay a specific god or goddess, but rather were born with the purpose of helping their other siblings. He was nowhere near as powerful as some of his other nasty siblings, but the fact that he had managed to completely reform was alarming.

Her thoughts stopped wandering off the moment Gration let out another cry. He held a hand over one of his eyes, and his golden blood leaked out from between his fingers.

Artemis immediately began pelting him with arrows of all sorts. Explosive arrows, arrows that oozed acid and arrows so sharp they were capable of hitting a boulder and coming clean out from the other side.

She also summoned a huge cast of falcons that tore into the giant's flesh with their sharp beaks and talons, and disoriented and distracted him in general.

Artemis had to think of something, and quick. She knew her hunters wouldn't last forever, and the blonde that who had aided her so valiantly would definitely be tired by now. However, one look at him told her otherwise. He masterfully avoided the giant's attempts to grab him with his hands and crush him under his feet and kept slicing here and there with his Endeixi. Everywhere the blade touched, there was a shower of the golden blood of the immortal giant.

He was another mystery she did not want to get into right now.

She could not transform into her divine form and use her more destructive attacks, unless she wanted to risk the lives of all her hunters.

All she could right now was pelt the giant with arrows, and hope that the blonde did not get himself killed.

But with how things were going so far, he didn't look he was going to. The giant was bleeding from everywhere the eye fell, and also from everywhere it did not fall. He was missing various fingers and an ear. One of his eyes had been stabbed, rendering the eye useless.

But Gration was not a giant for nothing. Despite being completely covered in his own blood, he was still fighting relentlessly.

"Why the fuck won't you go down!?" Naruto gritted his teeth as he stabbed the back of the giant's left knee with sword. He had kept up this routine for so long now, that he was getting thoroughly bored of it.

He did not want to use any jutsu, because of the simple reason that when people see you breathing fire or yeeting away rotating masses of super-compressed energy, they tend to ask questions.

But he couldn't keep stabbing away at the giant either. The hunters were being more and more overwhelmed each second. They would soon be completely overwhelmed, which was something he did not want.

Ah well, he supposed he would have to use it after all.

His eyes morphed into a shade of red, the color of blood, with three tomoe surrounding it. He jumped up to eye level of the giant, and stared him in his single remaining eye.

'_Genjutsu : Sharingan'_

* * *

**Sorry for the cliffhanger, but I felt like being mean, and I did not want to delay the chapter any further.**

**Please, do leave a review if you liked it.**

**Lemme know what I did right and if I went wrong somewhere, and how I can improve. **

**And over a hundred reviews, Im so happy yayy!**

**Thanks a ton for the support guys, I love y'all.**

**See ya!**


	5. Chapter 5

**NOTICE : In desperate need of a beta-reader.**

**Hello people!**

**This**** chapter would've been out a lot sooner, but I managed to fracture my left ankle jumping down from a staircase in my school, and I was stuck in the hospital for a few days.**

**Also, I would like to clear something out first. THE PAIRINGS ARE NOT DECIDED. THEY HAVEN'T BEEN FINALIZED. I am quite stuck with who to go with. If I said Rhea was at the top of the 'Probable Pairing' list, it did not mean that she was finalized. Honestly guys, I might as well go with Artemis or Aphrodite in the end. But as of right now, Rhea is leading in the polls. And because of the enormous amounts of PMs I got requesting me to add Artemis in the poll, and some doing quite a lot more than requesting, I decided to relent and she has been added to the poll.**

* * *

**Review responses :**

**SkeenTheDream : Hestia is just too much of a mother figure in my opinion. And she wouldn't be as much 'FUN' as some of the other choices.**

**XenoLucifer : But her 'adventurous' personality is where all the fun stems from ;)**

**YuukiAsuna-Chan : She is in a relationship with Leo, but since I've decided to omit the Roman aspect completely from the story, she is fair game.**

**Azrael : Prolly only gonna have Naruto and Kurama in the PJ Universe.**

**The Name of Love : It would really suck if Naruto was weaker than your average demigod. Hell, even a Chunin from Narutoverse would be enough to beat your top demigod from PJ Universe. And if you compare that with the power levels Naruto was at as we neared the end of the series, it is only fair that he would be massively OP.**

**Also, fun fact : I had a scene where Naruto chops off the toes of Gration in the previous chapter. Then I promptly realized that giants have snakes for feet and changed it. Kind of curious as to why no one noticed it before I did, or if they did why they did not point it out.**

**And sorry about the whole Aretmis/Athena confusion. It was an error on my part, and has been fixed.**

**Anyways, here you go, Chapter 5 of some more bad-ass Naruto :**

* * *

His eyes morphed into a shade of red, the color of blood, with three tomoe surrounding it. He jumped up to eye level of the giant, and stared him in his single remaining eye.

'_Genjutsu : Sharingan'_

Gration's little quarrel with the little blonde had been going on for quite a while now. He was as persistent as a pesky rodent, but far more dangerous than a rodent could ever hope to be. The fact that Gration was covered in his own golden immortal blood bore proof to that.

And what surprised him the most was the fact that the blonde hadn't even shed the tiniest drop of his red, mortal blood during it all.

He was not a half-blood, which was clear enough by his scent. He was a perfectly normal, perfectly mortal human. How a human managed to not only survive, but also cause unimaginable pain to a thousand year old giant in a battle was beyond him.

The tides of the battle had not been in Gration's favor since the moment the blonde pulled out his dark blade, which was akin to a needle in front of the might of Gration. However, this statement did not quite hold as much value fifteen minutes into the battle as he proceeded to split his palm into two, pop one of his eyes out, rip out a finger of his hand, and chop off his feet. Not necessarily in that order.

But when the blonde flew right up in front of Gration's remaining eye, and his eyes morphed into a color as red as that of mortal blood, the whole damn ocean flew into his favor.

This mortal had given him almost as much, if not more trouble than Hercules had in the Gigantomachy himself.

The moment his eyes turned crimson, Gration was suddenly not on Hamlin Peak.

And wherever he was, it was not pleasant in the least.

Artemis thought she was done being surprised by the blonde, but he had a tendency to keep surprising, as she would promptly find out the moment he jumped up to Gration's lone remaining eye.

A split second after Naruto had stared right into the giant's eye, he had stopped moving.

He had frozen right where he was, and the blonde fell back on the ground. She was surprised yet again, when she saw that his eyes weren't blue, their usual colour, but rather the crimson shade of blood.

"He won't be moving for a little while now."

His crimson eyes held none of the usual lightness that his blue eyes held. And with him staring right into her own silver eyes, she felt like she had not felt a sterner gaze.

But the little sly smile gracing his lips was in stark contrast to all the seriousness his eyes held.

Pulling her gaze away from his smiling lips, she stared right back into his eyes, "How long until he moves again?"

Naruto sighed, as if he himself was not aware of that particular fact.

"Honestly, I have absolutely no idea. He ideally should be paralyzed for at least half an hour, but I can't say for sure, since I don't always get to have my staring matches with 30-foot giants."

"A staring match that only lasted a second." She remarked.

"Was that a compliment, Lady Artemis? I am not sure I heard you right." Naruto spoke, his smile widening.

"Don't get ahead of yourself, mortal. We don't know for how long he is out, best make the full use of the little time we have."

No more was needed to be said. Artemis pulled out arrows and started shooting down earthborn faster than one could blink. Naruto shot off in a blur to the nearest thing with more than a pair of arms.

Not long after, the summit of the mountain was completely full of random piles of mud every here and there. The only ones left were Artemis, her hunters, the strange blonde, and the frozen giant.

As soon as the last earthborn collapsed into a pile of dust, courtesy of a particular blonde shoving his blade up its groin, Artemis started firing explosive arrows at the wall that surrounded them.

"Zoe, getting the hunters out of here is our first priority right now." She spoke to her most trusted lieutenant.

"Yes, my lady," she said respectfully, and then spoke more loudly to the hunters, "HUNTERS! AIM FOR THAT BRICK IN THE WALL! WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE AND QUICK!"

With that, the entirety of Artemis' troop of hunters started shooting arrows, all aimed at a singular spot on the wall. Cracks spread out like a spider web on the wall under the continued relentless assault.

"Can't you just build them a wooden ladder considering the fact that you are also the goddess of forests?" Naruto asked her.

Artemis scoffed, "That was the first thing we tried. Nothing can leave here until there is a breach in the walls itself. The barrier forbids anything from leaving."

"And what a splendid job your girl scouts are doing of breaching the wall." It was Naruto's turn to scoff.

Artemis looked at him sternly, and so did all of the hunters. Every single one.

Naruto shook his head, "Watch and learn."

With that, he calmly walked towards the spot in the wall where the cracks had been originating from. He then proceeded to arc his fist back, and punch the wall. As soon has his fist made contact with the wall, it shattered like a pane of glass being dropped onto the ground.

The bricks fell apart and the barrier collapsed.

A little basic chakra manipulation always beat flashy techniques and complicated jutsus after all.

"It was already weakened from our arrows." Zoe said with her eyebrow twitching, and Naruto pretended to not hear.

Soon as the barrier was down, Zoe commanded the hunters to move out, and they did.

"Leave now, Naruto. We are grateful for your aid, but I will need to go into my Divine Form to battle Gration. Divine Form of an Olympian can kill any normal human being who lays eyes on it." Artemis said to the blonde when she noticed he wasn't trying to leave via the break in the wall.

"We've all seen I am not quite normal, no?" Naruto asked her with just a hint of a smile.

"Then what are you?" Artemis asked with a raised eyebrow.

"A human who can kick some ass…?"

"…"

Naruto grinned sheepishly, but a groan was heard from the direction of the previously paralyzed giant. He was twitching ever so slightly, hinting at the fact that he was coming out of his paralysis.

"LEAVE, MORTAL! NOW!" Artemis shouted, already gathering the energy to transform into her Divine Form, thinking Naruto had heeded her warning and left. A bright energy engulfed her, a thousand times brighter than the sun. The whole summit was illuminated by the glory of the divine being. She was completely surrounded in the unbridled power of her divine essence, and she struck at Gration.

She knew a giant couldn't be slayed by a god's hand alone, and their boon needed a half-blood and a divine being to work together. In the Gigantomachy that had taken place eons ago, she had fought alongside Hercules to slay Gration.

Artemis also knew that she had no demi-gods at her disposal right now, as she herself had sent her hunters away. But you needed a demigod to slay a giant, you didn't need one to cripple and incapacitate one. She had sent her hunters off, with two purposes in mind. The first was their safety ofcourse, and the other was that so Olympus could be warned. And Artemis was more than enough to stall a giant such as Gration until aid arrived from Olympus. If they were lucky, maybe they could even capture Gration.

In her Divine Form, she was almost as large as Gration himself. She notched a massive arrow and let loose. The arrow itself was as large as a small tree. The sound it made as it was released could only be akin to the sound of a sonic boom.

The arrow streaked across the air at blinding speeds, leaving a golden glowing trail behind it. It struck the giant's left knee with an astounding boom, forcing him to let out a pained scream and fall to the ground.

Naruto chuckled, unnoticed by Artemis, as she believed he had left.

'_He used to be an adventurer like me, but then he took an arrow in the knee.'_

Artemis walked around the fallen giant slowly, another arrow notched, fingers ready to let loose the moment the giant tried to make a move. However she missed a horde of leaves rising behind her, and just a moment before she heard the swirling of leaves, she was surrounded. The leaves blew in a tornado with her in the center. The twist, however, was that the edges of the leaves themselves were as sharp as Stygian ice swords.

Gration pulled the arrow of his knee and rose, leaves already rising to heal his wound. With a gruesome, ugly smile, he arched his massive hand back and threw the arrow in the direction of the tornado with just as much velocity as Artemis's bow.

It had enough velocity to penetrate the superfast winds of the leaf tornado and maybe even fatally injure Artemis, and would've done so, if those same leaves had not accumulated together at a single spot in the blink of an eye and intercepted the arrow mid-flight.

The leaves formed a sort of cushion on the point where the thrown arrow would have struck, and it was stopped dead in its tracks.

"You are not the only one with the ability of chlorokinesis, Gration." Resonated the powerful voice of the Goddess of Forests, as she emerged from the dying down winds.

Gration looked mildly surprised. He knew that Artemis possessed the ability of chlorokinesis, being the Forest Goddess, but he knew not that she possessed it to this extent. Even though she had supreme authority over forests and their trees, her ability of chlorokinesis paled in comparison to her aunt Demeter's or her half-brother Dionysus's. Gration would never have thought it would be powerful enough to override someone else's ability of chlorokinesis, considering the fact that said someone else was Gration himself.

But he did not allow himself to be surprised for long, and wasting no time at all, he lunged at Artemis. He tried to make a grab for the goddess's neck, but she was quicker. She jumped behind, and away from his hands. However, she was not quicker than the terrible snakes all giant's had for feet. A massive snake wrapped itself around her left foot, coiling around it with enough force to crush it.

Trapped, Artemis had nowhere to move. Gration took advantage of this and went for a punch to her head. As his massive hand soared towards her face, she bent sideways to let it harmlessly fly past her head. Quick as lightning, she pulled out another arrow from her quiver, and notched it. Just as quick, she let the arrow loose, and it embedded itself deep into the junction where Gration's scaly knee grew out into a serpent.

Gration grunted loudly, and time seemed to freeze for a moment.

A small electronic beep disturbed the sudden calm that had settled over the summit.

Another beep.

Then, a smile appeared on Artemis's glowing face, as the arrow in the giant's foot blew up with another beep. The explosion itself wasn't massive, but the sound was. And the effect was, as well.

Gration's snake-foot flew through the air, severed from his knee in a shower of immortal blood.

Artemis's joy was short lived however, as the giant's hand shot forward and grabbed the Goddess's neck just as he was losing balance and falling. Using his falling trajectory, he grabbed the glowing goddess with both hands, and brought her down headfirst into the ground as he fell to the ground himself with a smack. The resultant crater had a diameter of twenty foot, but no one told Artemis that as she jumped up and away from the fallen giant, nimble as a dancer.

Her lip and forehead were bleeding immortal blood, but Artemis had realized something. Her power was slowly being drained by some unknown force. It was powerful, immensely so, but yet so subtle she had only noticed it now. Soon as the moment she had stepped foot onto the summit, something had been draining her strength, sapping it away like those disgusting creatures mortals called leeches.

But along with it, she also realized another fact. Her intelligent and tactical mind did not miss much. Sure, Athena might have had a reputation for being the smartest goddess, but Artemis was no joke. Her power was only sapped away when she was in direct or indirect contact with the ground.

Such powerful magic, it was doubtlessly her.

Gaea.

The earth itself, working against her, and supporting her disgusting, horrendous offspring.

Artemis knew she couldn't stall Gration if this kept up. Sure, she could fly around, but every time she came in contact with the ground, or even if she got hit by Gration while he was standing on the ground, it would sap away her power through the giant.

She had to slay the giant, but how?

She had no demigods at her disposal. She knew this was a lost battle if she fought here. And she had no way of leaving.

Unknown and forgotten by her, the breach in the wall she and her hunters had made had mended itself, and the magical barrier had reformed. If she had to take a guess, she would say it was from her own stolen power.

It did not matter however. Even if the ancient forced themselves were working against her, she would go down fighting. She couldn't let her hunters down and bring shame to her honor by giving up or not trying.

Hell, she might even be able to pop a few more arrows in Gration.

She jumped up from the ground, but she was slow. Much slower than she had been before. Her strength was being sapped away faster every second. Gration rushed at her, and punched her down into the ground with all his might before she could even rise 10 feet into the air, his leg already healed.

She smacked into the ground, hard and slid 30 feet on the ground, cracking and making deep gashes in the ground as her fallen form skidded to a stop. It had been a long time since the Goddess of the Hunt had her breath knocked out of her.

In her fallen state, Artemis still managed to notch another arrow and let it fly at the giant standing a few feet away from her. But before it could impale itself between the giant's eyebrows, his hand shot up and grabbed the arrow, stopping it mid flight.

He laughed, and it was the ugliest sound Artemis had ever heard. The ground was sapping away at her strength even now as she lay in the ground.

Gration threw the arrow at Artemis, putting all his might into it. As it left his hand, the air itself seemed to distort around the arrow as it flew towards her with hypersonic speeds. The resulting sonic boom was almost as scary as the thought of what would happen if the arrow hit her.

It seemed to cover the distance between her and Gration in no time at all, but funnily enough, time seemed to slow down as the arrow was just a few feet away from her face.

It seemed to fly through the air lazily as if mocking her. Everything slowed down and all she could see was the arrow which was just half a foot away from her face.

Just as it was a few centimeters away from impaling into her head, a hand grabbed the shaft of the arrow, and it stopped.

An arrow moving over five times faster than the speed of sound, stopped.

Just like that.

Her eyes tracked the hand up its wrist, the elbow, the muscular biceps, toned shoulders, and an excessively handsome face. His long, golden hair fell around the sides of his face, and there it was.

The ever irritating smile.

"You look like you need a hand." Naruto smiled, as he turned around, holding the arrow in his left arm.

Gration's eyes widened, and he screamed, "YOU! HOW ARE YOU EVEN ALIVE AFTER HAVING SEEN THE DIVINE FORM OF AN IMMORTAL?"

"If I lived after seeing your face, then limitless divine power can do nothing to faze me," Naruto laughed and asked the giant, "You love throwing things, don't you? I bet your mama threw you when you were born cuz you were so ugly!"

Gration let out a growl of rage, and Artemis had the urge to face palm at the kindergarten-level insult.

'_Apparently not.'_ Artemis thought, thinking about Gaea doing her best in trying to make the fight as hard as she could for her, despite being only subconsciously active.

Then Naruto's expression turned dead-serious.

"Try catching something for once."

Standing over Artemis, he turned in a full circle with his body, mimicking the motion of a discus thrower and threw the arrow at the giant.

There was another massive boom, followed by a huge crash and a scream.

The arrow had glowed slightly blue for some reason, and struck Gration at the center of his chest, impaling itself deep within the center of his sternum, and blasting him away into a section of the wall surrounding them.

He offered Artemis a hand. She had turned back to her human form. Gaea had siphoned off enough energy off of her to render her unable to go into her Divine Form for a while.

She took it, and he pulled her huge form up with ease.

"H-How?" She asked him, standing close to his tall frame.

"Hm?" He asked, not understanding what she was asking.

"H-how are you still alive?" She asked him, getting over her initial stupor, then added sternly remembering the blonde's habit of avoiding questions, "And do not bother giving me a pointless answer."

"As if I know myself," He groaned, and then spied Gration trying to get back up.

"And we should probably stop him from doing that." He said and was off in a blur. He suddenly appeared in front of Gration and planted a kick in the arrow buried in his chest, impaling it further in and making the giant roar out in pain and fall back to the ground.

Artemis decided to put an end to it once and for all.

She plucked out another arrow from her quiver, and hopefully the last one she would need. She wanted to incapacitate the giant before all of her power was drained away, as she knew he couldn't be killed.

It was a beautiful arrow, to say in the least. It looked like it was made of gold, with a swan's head at its tip, its beak forming the head of the arrow. The swan's eyes were made of red gemstones, rubies if Naruto had to guess.

"I would advise that you step back." She said, not looking at Naruto but obviously referring to him.

He raised his hands up with a shake of his head and a smile, and backed off.

The arrow soared through the air with no sound, as graceful as a swan with flying with its wings outstretched. Artemis sharp eyes did not miss the sudden bluish glow it acquired as it soared past Naruto.

No sound did it make when it impaled itself just above Naruto's thrown arrow on Gration's chest.

The only sounds were those of Gration screaming as his body glowed and fell apart like a sand-castle in a storm.

* * *

"So you are telling me that you slayed Gration, with the aid of a _human?_" Ares asked, with a grin on his face as if he found the notion funny.

The whole Olympian Council looked at him, seated in the throne room, but the eyes of Artemis held the most anger.

"Are you implying that I would lie to the Council, Ares?" Artemis asked in a stern voice. So stern, in fact, that it was enough for him to shut up. Artemis was an enemy even the God of War wasn't foolish enough to want.

"Are you sure that it was not a demi-god?" Zeus asked his daughter, again.

"I would've known if he was, Father." Artemis replied, again.

"But we know the boon of the giants. The only way a god can slay a giant is if they are aided by a demigod." Poseidon decided to add his own two cents in the conversation.

"Yes, I am aware. But this human, he wasn't normal. The skill with which he fought, no human should have been able to do that. His strength equalled, if not exceeded the might of Hercules himself. Although his style of fighting was quite different." Artemis informed the Council.

She had stormed into the throne room and had summoned an Olympian Council. The notion of a giant rising was of utmost importance. She had then proceeded to inform her fellow Olympians of how she had tracked the giant to Maine, thinking he was just a normal monster. She then laid down her entire battle with the giant, complete with the details of how the blonde had managed to mutilate Gration even without her aid. She than then informed them of Gaea siphoning off her strength, and how Gration managed to plant her face in the dirt, although quite hesitantly. This part had earned an outright chuckle from Ares and a joke from Apollo, but they had shut up the moment she sent them a glare. She then told them how the blonde had stopped the arrow with his bare hands, and how she had slain Gration with her Swan Blessing arrow.

"Yet, we have seen even the most powerful of gods, including us, were not able to do any harm to the giants in the Gigantomachy until the heroes had answered Zeus' call. So how did a simple human manage to aid you in slaying Gration?" Poseidon asked Artemis, a puzzled look on his face.

Artemis shook her head, "I have no idea, Uncle. But perhaps, Athena might…" She trailed off as she turned to look at her trusted sister, the Goddess of Wisdom.

The whole Olympian Council had a habit of turning to Athena when they stumbled upon something they couldn't quite comprehend, and that was what they did. Every single one of them, turned their gazes upon Athena, hoping she had an answer to the situation.

Artemis was so observed in thought that she didn't realize that everyone was looking at her at first. They could quite literally hear the cogs turning in her head. When she did notice that everyone was looking at her, she cleared her throat loudly, preserving her dignity.

"Ahem, this is quite a situation indeed. I do not have a definitive answer, but I do have a theory." Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom spoke.

"Pray, do tell." Apollo said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

After a brief glare in his direction, Athena said again, "We know that for a god to slay a giant, the hand of a demigod is required as well. However, there exists no boon that the giants have which makes them immune to death from human hands, or just demigod hands for that matter. If a demigod had the strength to slay a giant, then according to my theory, they could. It is the same for a human. However, since no human or demigod can achieve the power to slay a giant alone, and only the gods possessed the power to do so during the time of the Gigantomachy, Gaea blessed them with the boon that the gods would need the help of a demigod to kill one."

When Athena finished, the looks on the faces of the Olympians was one of absolute surprise.

"So, are you saying that it wasn't Artemis who actually killed the giant, but rather the human himself?" Zeus asked, catching her meaning.

"Yes."

"Impossible." Ares said loudly. Too loudly.

Athena fixed him with a death glare, "You have a better theory?"

That shut him up nicely.

Athena turned back to Artemis, "That blue glow you saw on your arrow, Artemis. That was perhaps the cause of Gration's death, and not your arrow itself."

Artemis nodded. The theory did sound impossible, but it was the most likely solution. Rare were the times when a theory of Athena's was wrong.

That was the moment when Dionysus chose to appear in his throne in a gust of wind, carrying the smell of grapes and wine.

"Ah, what did I miss?" He asked, putting his head on his palm, which rested on the armrest of his throne.

"You're late, Dionysus." Athena pointed out.

"Again." Zeus added with a grunt.

"Yes, yes, I know. Do not extend my exile to Camp Half-Blood for another hundred years, please. These demigods are unbearably troublesome." Dionysus said lazily.

"How does a hundred and fifty years sound?" Zeus asked with just a hint of a smile.

"Not good at all." Dionysus complained, "Anyways, was it something important?"

Ares asked him, "You remember Gration?"

"Yeah, from the Gigantomachy?"

Ares nodded, and then continued, "Apparently, he was back somehow. And he fought Artemis, and managed to beat her-"

Artemis cut him off with gritted teeth, "Almost."

The war god snickered and continued, "Yes, he managed to ALMOST beat her. But that was when this guy, SUPPOSEDLY human-"

Artemis cut him off again, "If I say he was human, then he was DEFINITELY human."

"Yeah, yeah okay. So that was when this human appeared and apparently gave Gration one hell of an ass-kicking, and then they both managed to slay him." Ares finished.

"A human, you say?"

"Yes."

Dionysus looked like he had swallowed a fly.

"Perchance, did he have blonde hair?"

"Yes," Athena replied, but then her face became puzzled, "How did you know that?"

Dionysus groaned, then sighed, then massaged his temples as if he had a headache.

"We might or might not have a problem."

* * *

**There, done!**

**So, how was it? Did you like it? Did you not like it? Regardless, leave a review!**

**Thanks a lot for all the support people. And also, I would really appreciate if someone would be willing to beta-read these chapters for me, to give the chapters a much needed last moment magical touch, y'know?**


	6. Chapter 6

**Heyo!**

**I know I am unjustifiably late in putting this chapter out, but there is a lot of stuff going on that made me disregard this and keep you guys waiting. I know I am a terrible person, I'm sorry :(**

**NOTICE : IN URGENT NEED OF A BETA-READER.**

* * *

**Before you get to reading, a few review responses, for people who actually read this lol:**

**The Fox Paradox 9 : That is an awesome idea, will make sure I include that little scene somewhere xD**

**Chrolloz : You'll have to be more specific my guy, I put plenty of references and easter eggs in that no one seems to find :p**

**helrio uzukagu : I actually never thought about this, but now that I did, it does make plenty of sense. I'll see if I can include like a mini-bashing/comedic scene in regards to that. Also, as a guest pointed out, they actually aren't for 'protecting' the demigods, but rather for just sniffing them out because of their tracking skills and what not. But regardless, they shouldn't be free monster food in any case.**

**WeslenBR : Obrigada, my guy,.**

* * *

**Also, IMPORTANT: With the addition of Artemis to the poll, the vote count for Rhea pretty much stagnated while Artemis's and Aphrodite's has kept on growing. In regards to that and various other considerations, I've decided to remove Rhea all-together from the poll. She won't be included as a probable long-time relationship option for Naruto.**

**Also guys, I think I might have overstepped the fine and almost non-figurable line between T and M rated fictions in this particular chapter. If anyone has any issues with this, don't hesitate in PMing me and giving me a piece of your mind.**

**Won't take much of your time. Happy Reading!**

* * *

Dionysus groaned, then sighed, then massaged his temples as if he had a headache, "We might or might not have a problem."

"Ah, yes. Dionysus already knows about him."

The whole council looked at the God of Wine with equally puzzled looks. Dionysus just sighed again, "After all, Camp Half-Blood was where this irksome blonde appeared to annoy everyone first."

"What was he doing at Camp Half-Blood if he wasn't a demi-god? Aren't humans unable to see that camp?" Apollo questioned.

"This _human_ managed to slay an offspring of Gaea and Tartarus without getting even a single scratch, and you are asking how he was able to see the camp?" Artemis deadpanned.

Apollo just scratched his head for a few seconds, and then instantly lit up as if a lightbulb had switched on inside his head, "Yeah, that is quite strange now that you mention it...He shouldn't have been able to see the giant either!"

Artemis nodded, her brother at least hade _some _sense. She was going to tell them about how Naruto also seemed to be a clear-sighted mortal as well, but she was interrupted before she could even speak.

The God of Music continued, "Holy shit! This guy must be really strong if he managed to slay a giant when he couldn't even see him!"

Ares just grinned, the thoughts of a worthy battle brimming inside his head, as he slipped into his sadistic desires.

Artemis put her head in her hands and said with a desperate sigh, "I don't even know why I bother anymore…"

"You both done?" Dionysus asked, his eyebrow twitching.

"Yes, continue."

And continue he did. He told the council about how Naruto had appeared in Camp Half-Blood with a demigod and a satyr for the first time, and had gone off only to return after he had saved another demigod. He told them that the blonde had apparently also killed the Minotaur with nothing but his bare hands, and how he had proceeded to manhandle the Lieutenant of Artemis's hunters in a Capture the Flag game.

Dionysus seemed to have forgotten the part where he tried to make the blonde go insane the first time he met him by showing him visions, and also the part where that plan had backfired very unpleasantly.

And obviously, it wasn't because of the unavoidable hit to his dignity that would take place if the council became aware that a teenager had managed to bring him down to his knees.

"Chiron has taken quite a liking to the boy." Dionysus finished.

"And apparently, you haven't." Hermes commented, noting the irritated look on Dionysus's face and his twitching eyebrow the entire time he was speaking about their latest object of interest.

"Wait until you actually meet the brat. We'll see how much of a liking you take to him." Dionysus replied.

"Well, even if this…Naruto is quite the mystery, it would seem that we are quite indebted to him. He saved the lives of our mortal children, and arguably Artemis as well." Athena stated.

Artemis nodded, although begrudgingly. No matter how much of a hit to her pride it was, it was true nonetheless. Artemis was under no illusions that she would have left the summit unscathed or even left at all, if Naruto hadn't intervened.

"Well, there is only one way we can get to the bottom of the situation." Zeus spoke finally.

The council turned their heads to look at their king.

"We get the boy here."

They agreed. It did seem like the only reliable course of action. It seemed to be the only way they could understand the mystery of this blonde. They could question him directly, and it also was the perfect opportunity to gauge the intentions of the blonde. And when you are as paranoid as the God of the Sky, you did not like being left in the dark.

To Zeus, from whatever he had heard so far, this blonde was a threat. All that was left to see was whether he would become a threat that needed to be neutralized, or a threat who could be swayed to their side of the park and made a threat to the everyone on the other side.

But Athena interrupted his musings.

"Father, I believe that we should let the blonde be."

The surprise in his eyes was evident, but Athena was never one to say something without having something else to say to back it up, so he gestured her to continue.

"If he does have intentions that may not be in the best interests of our own interests, summoning him here will doubtlessly alarm him. Rather, we should supervise him from the shadows. Not give him a single hint that he is being watched, and see where that road leads us."

Zeus nodded at her logic. It was sound, as always. If he was summoned here, he would know that he was on the radar of the gods, which in turn would lead to him being careful if he was indeed a threat. Letting him be was a much more viable option. They could simply observe and try to learn why this mysterious blonde had decided to make a sudden appearance and what his motives were.

But his musings were interrupted again, this time by Apollo.

"What if we don't like where that road leads us?"

Ares grinned hungrily.

"I'll bury his corpse right in the middle of that road."

* * *

After the council has adjourned and the gods had departed to their respective favorite wastes-of time, only Athena and Artemis remained.

Athena had gestured her half-sister to stay back. Artemis looked at her inquiringly, knowing that if Athena had asked her to wait, then it had to be something important.

As Athena approached her to talk, both missed the little dove that quietly sat on Aphrodite's throne. Seeing both Artemis and Athena not leaving initially, the Goddess of Love had apparently decided to hang around some more as well.

"What is it, sister?" Artemis asked the smartest of the Olympians.

"This Naruto, he worries me Artemis. From what you and Dionysus have spoken of, I find it hard to believe that he is a normal human. The only thing that is stopping me from not believing otherwise is your surety that he is indeed a human."

"I am sure of it Athena. Granted, the feats he has managed to accomplish and the skill he has shown clearly hint at him not being one, but if he were not a human, I would have sensed it. I would've smelled it."

Artemis, being a hunter, had a highly honed sense of smell as well, and could almost track every monster that existed by its scent alone.

Athena sighed. She hated mysteries she couldn't solve. Ever since she had been small, even the most difficult of puzzles and riddles that even the wisest could not solve had been child's play for her. But when she got a riddle she couldn't solve, she would use everything at her disposal to crack it. It was another one of her traits that she was known for. Give Athena a question she couldn't answer, and she would scourge the earth and sky looking for an answer, and then shove it in your face without even looking smug about it.

"I have a request to make, Artemis," Athena looked at Artemis, her calculating mind already planning out ways to convince Artemis in the event she denied the request, and continued, "We need someone to keep an eye on this worry, lest we let him out of our sight and regret it later. We can't let him run around unsupervised until we can confirm his intentions."

"And you'd have me do it?" Artemis spoke up, considering what to answer. Doubtlessly, her interest had been captured by the blonde. And not just because of his fighting skills. There was something else about him too, something that she couldn't quite place. She felt the urge to grow close to the blonde. To talk to him and get to know him and all the secrets he hid. It was like that urge to do something just to know what happens, even if you already know that the outcome might be very unexpected. Quite akin to the urge that people who don't know how to solve a Rubik's cube get when they see an unsolved one and get to just going crazy with it in an attempt to get it right.

But then there was the question of the recent emergence of the presence of Gaea that she had felt as well. Artemis had refrained from letting that little detail about the fight out into the Council, since she was not quite sure herself. She would need to look into the matter more, and determine whether what she had sensed was correct or not. No point in making the already paranoid Council more paranoid before confirming first whether it was a matter to be paranoid about or not.

There was also the question of the little something she had felt when Naruto her pulled her up from the ground, when she had been standing so close to his frame. Again, she could not quite place what it exactly was. And she wanted to refrain from trying to place it, and so marked the matter with a large red 'CONSIDERED, NEED TO AVOID' and cast it away in the deeper parts of her mind, to be thought about later, and hopefully not anytime soon. Olympians, and everyone in general, tended to avoid things they were not familiar with. Feelings included.

"Obviously I'd have you do it," Athena replied, "You have the best tracking skills in all of us. If we are only getting to know about this strangely skilled blonde now, then it is hardly unlikely that he possesses similar skills in remaining hidden and out of the spotlight and has used them in the past to remain undetected from us."

"As always, you have thought this out thoroughly, haven't you?" Artemis inquired with just the hint of a smile. Athena really was worth what they paid her for.

"Obviously." Was Athena's short reply, but she did not fail in hiding the slight hint of pride that had managed to leak into those nine letters.

"I hate to be the jam in the execution of your plan, but I have other important matters to tend to, sister. I know you understand, since I wouldn't have disregarded this if it hadn't been for something equally, if not more important." Artemis said with just a hint of hesitation, since she was aware what happened when something went south in Athena's plans.

The Goddess of Wisdom sighed disappointedly, and replied, "It is okay, Artemis. I shall look for another solution, or rather study this Naruto myself, and keep a watch over his activities."

And that was when the little dove flew from between their faces, surprising both of them and causing them to take a step back. Not even a second later, there stood the Goddess of Love herself in all her glory.

"Hate to interrupt you girls' gossip, but I felt the immediate need to offer my services." Aphrodite's voice was as beautiful as she was, though that did nothing to please the other two goddesses at her sides.

Athena gritted her teeth, and asked, "And why would we be needing your services?"

"Obviously, since dear Arty seems to be too busy, and you seem to be too arrogant to do this yourself," Aphrodite began, "I shall take it upon me to bear the heavy responsibilities of taking care of Olympus's security." She finished with her hands extended outwards and into the air, striking a superman pose, coupled with a wink.

Artemis shook her head with a smile at her other sister's antics, but Athena was even more irritated by Aphrodite's actions, fueled by the suspicion that said actions were done explicitly to irritate her.

"And do tell, as to how you would do that?" Athena asked again.

"By keeping an eye on our latest object of interest." Aphrodite winked again.

"And you are sure that you would do this for Olympus's security and not for your own selfish reasons of getting him in your bed?" Athena asked with raised eyebrows. She was well aware that the Goddess of Love did not take an interest in anything that did not involve her domain, which usually was sex, love, and more sex.

"I am offended that you would go so far as to question my resolve, sister!" Aphrodite said with a faux pained expression.

Athena sighed, knowing that Aphrodite was probably still going to try and see if whether this Naruto was a decent hook-up candidate or not. It was all for the better if along with that Aphrodite simultaneously kept an eye on him.

"Very well then. Do make sure that he doesn't realize he is being watched by a goddess. Be as discreet as you can. And also make sure you remain committed to your resolve." Athena commented dryly.

Aphrodite smiled innocently, "Why sister, you know how strong my commitment is."

And with that, her smile took a more seductive side, and she disappeared with a wink and a gust of perfumed-air.

* * *

We find our irksome protagonist, or potential antagonist, sitting at a bar counter; his head hung low and staring into a glass of bourbon.

Loud music blared around him, and he downed the drink in one gulp, and asked for more.

"Long day, bud?" Ed asked him. He had come in with an irritated look on his face, as if he had to run an extra mile in his usual schedule of not running at all, had sat down at the counter, and demanded a bourbon.

"Tell me about it." Naruto said, his voice wavering as if he was drunk.

"I know you can't get drunk Naruto, I've seen you chug down countless bottles of the strongest stuff we serve here and look even more sober than usual after." Ed said with an amused look on his face.

"Shut up, man. Even if I can't get drunk, there is nothing stopping me from pretending that I am drunk! Don't ruin my buzz." Naruto said in the same tone, earning a chuckle from the bartender as he poured him another glass.

That was when the vacant seat next to Naruto was pulled out, and was occupied by a graceful, slender presence that smelled particularly nice.

Naruto gulped down the bourbon, placed the glass on the counter with a soft 'thump', and tapped the edge of the glass, signaling for more.

As Naruto took another whiff of the smell of lavender and vanilla perfume as it wafted toward him, he realized that the slender presence smelled VERY nice. Excruciatingly so.

The bourbon glass was filled again, and he started drinking again.

"I love to see a man drinking to drown his sorrows. It's so sexy." The slender presence said, and scooted a little closer to Naruto's frame. Her voice was feminine, so she must be a woman, Naruto concluded. Naruto also concluded that her voice was as nice as her perfume.

Still not taking his eyes off his now empty glass of bourbon, he said, "And I love to see a woman who knows what a 'personal space' is."

No matter how good you smell or sound, you never interrupt a man while he is in the middle of drinking a glass of bourbon. Sure, you can chat as much as you wanted AFTER that glass has been finished, but not DURING the process of it being finished. It's just something you DON'T do as a rule of the thumb.

Aphrodite was a little taken aback. Usually, her sound was enough to lure men who hadn't fallen in love with just her smell, but not this man. She still had to get a good look at his face as she could not get a clear view of it due to the now awkward angle between them, to decide whether coming down here for literally just checking someone out in the middle of the night had been worth it or not.

Judging by what she had already seen, the blonde was tall. Easily over six feet, and had a muscular frame, judging by the bulging biceps her wandering eyes had taken note of as he had raised his hand to gulp down his drink. Speaking of which, bourbon was not a poor choice. A man's preferred drink could tell a lot about him too.

"Feisty, aren't we?" Aphrodite teased.

"That's generally how the girls like it in bed."

He finally turned his head to look at her, and winked with a slight smile.

Aphrodite literally forgot to breathe for a second. She had not seen a handsomer man. He was clean-shaven, with a well-defined jawline, and long spiky blonde hair that also hung over his face.

'_And that smile of his. Ooh, that smile.'_

And Naruto had to admit, that this had to be the sexiest and simultaneously most-beautiful woman he had laid eyes on.

Aphrodite recovered quickly, having seen her fair share of good-looking men, and said, "You might be feisty, but are you feisty enough?" She retorted with one of her sexiest winks.

She had expected Naruto to blush, have his legs turned to jelly and collapse on the spot.

Instead, he fired back with his own retort, without missing a beat, "Feistier than you can handle."

Aphrodite grinned, coming down here had not been a waste after all.

"We wouldn't want to make any presumptions now, would we?"

"You want to, I don't know, maybe confirm them?" Naruto grinned back, as he was the one who now proceeded to scoot closer to the other.

"Down, boy." Aphrodite put a finger on his chest and playfully pushed him back.

"I haven't gotten up yet." Naruto's grin widened as he winked again, the girl wasn't too bad a company.

Aphrodite was surprised that she was the one blushing now, but she said nonetheless, "You want to, I don't know, maybe save that for a little later?"

"Why delay a good deed?" Naruto spoke in a sagely voice with his eyes closed and head nodding, and Aphrodite started laughing at the stupidity of the imitation.

"No, I am totally serious!" Naruto said, and Aphrodite started laughing even louder, and Naruto chuckled as well.

When their smiles died down, Aphrodite asked for a bourbon of her own.

"You don't generally do introductions?" Naruto asked, comfortable in the playful air around them.

"It's impolite to let a lady introduce herself first." Aphrodite said.

It had been a long time since she had a genuine laugh. It felt good, and made her feel lighter in a sense. Contrary to what most would believe, being the goddess of her domain was not easy. Love was a very volatile emotion, and maintaining its equilibrium in the world was a very difficult task, made even more difficult by the newer generations engaging in activities of unfaithfulness and pretending to be in love just for the sake of it. Sometimes Aphrodite felt like she didn't get paid enough for what she did, but all these thoughts and worries had slithered out of her mind.

"Why do I feel like you don't actually need an introduction?" Naruto asked with a raised eyebrow. He could sense the same thing in this woman that he sensed from Artemis. Even though the essence of what he sensed from the Huntress Goddess was fundamentally different from what he was sensing here, it was essentially the same type of energy. It was hard to describe.

While Artemis felt like the paramount representation of forests, animals and nature, this woman was more like the paramount representation of glamour, beauty and everything pleasing to look at. There was no doubt about it. She was an Olympian Goddess.

The only question that remained was of which one she was.

"And why would you think that?" Aphrodite asked him with a playful look in her eye.

"You don't give up easily, do you?" Naruto sighed.

"Nope," She giggled slightly, and then her eyes wandered off to his empty glass. Picking up the bottle of bourbon, she leaned over at his side seductively, "Allow me to help you out with this." She filled his glass, and put the bottle back and leaned back to where she was sitting just as seductively.

'_This woman could even breathe seductively.'_ Naruto thought to himself. Not that he was complaining.

"Appreciate the help." He said, his eyes glinting mischievously.

"Oh, I know you do."

As Naruto sipped his bourbon, his eyes never leaving the Goddess's sitting in front of him, he wondered what her purpose could be of coming here.

The timing was way too convenient for what he thought was most likely the case. Artemis had seen what he was capable of and had informed the other Olympians, who had panicked and sent Aphrodite to watch over him.

That, or the Goddess had way too much free time on her hands.

He knew it had been a bad idea to put on a show like that. He could've avoided this mess and waved at it as the chance to get caught up in it passed harmlessly by his side. He could've simply delivered the kids to the camp, and returned back home and continued with his mostly meaningless existence. He could've chosen to not get involved in this newer plane of things. He could've chosen to not unnecessarily spice up his life.

But where was the fun in that?

And anyways, curiosity never fails in killing the cat.

'_Curiosity might as well be more of a ninja that I ever was.' _He mused to himself, amused at the thought.

"What are you smiling about?" Aphrodite asked, interested in why the blonde suddenly spaced out for a moment and then started smiling.

"Oh, just a few naughty thoughts that somehow made their way into my musings." He grinned at her.

"Such as?" She smiled back and asked in a seductive tone.

"How about I show rather than tell?"

"All the more better."

* * *

As another orgasm tore through Aphrodite, she reflected over how her boring day had suddenly become so interesting.

After all, there was nothing more she could do, since she had gone almost numb from Naruto pounding her like a man possessed.

Ah, she had decided to _lend_ her help to Artemis and Athena.

And what a good decision that had been.

Neither had she informed the blonde about her identity, and neither had he, even though she was quite sure that he knew already. And despite the lack of introductions, here they were.

The Goddess of Love and Sex, going numb from pleasure, and Naruto not showing the signs of stopping anytime soon.

She decided that she liked the blonde. He was smart, funny and all those other cliché things you'd want in a man. But despite that, he had an aura that she felt drawn to. Men of immense strength have always been the prime attraction of women looking to mate. It was a natural instinct that had developed in various organisms over the years. Something that had been evolving since the primitive days, where a strong mate was the highest object of desire of a female.

Needless to say, it wasn't too different for the divine beings.

None of the humans that Aphrodite lay with had the aura of power than Naruto possessed. It was subtle, as if being both consciously and subconsciously hidden, but despite that, it had a dwarfing presence.

Laying with gods wasn't comparable as well. Ares was no fun in bed, despite what most might believe. Sure, he might have the adequate required equipment, but that alone was not enough to sate a woman who was in desperate need of some pleasuring.

Naruto on the other hand, the scream that she let out as another orgasm all but RIPPED through her was evident enough towards his skill in the more delicate arts.

How had she ended up here again?

Oh yes, a few drinks and a few good laughs. Contrary to popular belief, that is indeed and in fact all that you needed to get yourself a woman in your bed.

Sure, the amazing body and the defined muscles that Naruto had did also supplement the basic requirement, and needless to say, Aphrodite did find his whiskers very cute and strangely erotic, but she had to admit that this night might as well be one of the few that she was actually enjoying.

He also had very nice eyes, Aphrodite reflected as he pulled her into another deep kiss.

* * *

He woke up with a slight headache. Never would Naruto understand how drinking blindly could never get him drunk but still leave him with a hangover after a long night.

And boy, what a long night it had been.

As he pushed the covers aside and rubbed his eyes, he found that his impromptu nightly companion had disappeared without a trace. Not that he had expected her to stay. Goddesses must be terribly busy beings after all.

He took a moment to appreciate the rather rare stroke of pleasant luck that had fallen in his bag, which usually received nothing but large shits from fortune as he had banged what he could confidently call the most beautiful woman he had ever seen senseless.

He went ahead and took a short shower, and stepped out and put a plain black t-shirt on, along with comfortable grey jeans.

He was running out of clothes to wear, he mused to himself as he headed to the kitchen to make himself some breakfast. He noticed a particular something that previously had no job being in his house on his small dining table as he did though.

A plain white paper which might have had a little perfume sprayed on it and a red rose kept on it as a paperweight. He supposed with a smile that his one-night-stand partner might as well have left a trace after all.

He picked up the paper, and it had written on it in beautiful handwriting the message:

_I had plenty of fun last night, Naruto ;)_

_A 10/10 man and some 10/10 sex, what more could a woman ask for?_

_Would've hung around if I had some time, and shown you what some of MY naughty thoughts were (cue wink)_

_A deed well done indeed._

_XOXO_

He grinned, his initial prediction that she already knew who he was confirmed. Even though she had not confirmed who she has, she had quite made up for it with her skills in pleasuring the previous night, so he guessed he was no one to complain.

If there was a Goddess of Sex, she had to be it.

* * *

**And cut!**

**That'll be it. I get it you guys hate having to wait for so long and then get such short chapters in return, I really do. And I do apologise for this inconvenience, but this is my capacity. For some reason, I can never write chapters exceeding 5-6k words, because then it starts feeling like I am increasing the word count just for the sake of it.**

**Read and Review, let me know if this chapter was up to the mark, or if it exceeded it or if it has dropped so low that you can't even make out the mark anymore. Any and all constructive criticism is appreciated!**

**Absolutely loving how crazy you guys are going over the story. Y'all are the best.**


	7. Chapter 7

Hey there!

So I know that the previous chapter might not have been agreeable to everyone's tastes, but it was more of a filler chapter anyways. We'll get back into the action from this chapter onwards. Also, I've thought about the Roman aspect of PJ Universe, and decided that I'd be missing out on a lot of fun if I decide to completely omit it. I had a lot of fun reading House of Hades and I'll include that aspect too, but expect it to come much later into the story, since I'll have Naruto go through the original 5 books' events first.

Major thanks to **to2llyuntraceable **for beta'ing this chapter. He's been a major help and I'm working with him and **AgresteBug **who has also been very helpful in addressing a lot of issues with the earlier chapters. I'm currently under the process of rewriting them, so expect delayed chapters.

* * *

Review Responses:

**DemonKaiser : I took your idea, thought a bit about it, and dedicated a long-ass scene to it after changing it up just a bit. Hope you like reading it :p**

**gazz uzumaki : That'll be answered further on.**

**Aion27 : In the words of another reviewer, 'Rhea is a grandmother and acts like it', which is what made me remove her from the list.**

* * *

As Naruto made his way towards his college, he reflected on for the second time in the morning at the uncanny feeling that he was being watched. He could not exactly point out what it was, but it was certainly very unsettling.

Shrugging it off as paranoia and to the thought that he would deal with it once it became a real problem, Naruto decided not to spoil this pleasant morning by making the effort to search around for whatever, or whoever, was watching him. He had better things to mull over. Such as the equally pleasant happenings of the previous night.

While the blonde was jumbled up in his thoughts, Kurama could not deny the certain amount of pride welling up inside him. No matter how much trouble fate put them through, there were certain times when it was inexplicably generous.

_'I can hear you, you know.'  
_

**"Kid, the simultaneous amount of good and bad luck you seem to have never fails in astounding me."** Kurama said to Naruto with a hint of amusement in his voice.

_'What? You'd rather have me swimming in the shit whirlpool of bad luck forever?' Naruto asked sharply_.

**"When that is clearly where you belong, yes." Kurama replied with a shameless grin.**

_'Shut up, Kurama.'_

As he walked to class, he smiled at quite a good number of fellow students he knew, and nodded to the few teachers in the corridors. A few good mornings were muttered and a couple of high-fives were exchanged, and Naruto entered his classroom.

He had actually gotten admission into a college. It was not a major university of any sort, just a little community college he had gotten himself into. The studying costs weren't outrageous, and you tended not to gain much outside attention in such colleges. Since the entry process into a major university was carried out on various levels, it was generally harder to convince examiners and interviewers that you weren't an ancient being and had simple required documents such as a birth certificate and a high school diploma using a couple of neat genjutsu from your Sharingan.

He was pursuing a degree in international law. He had chosen this particular subject as he curious to know the workings of the modern world and there was no better option to learn everything about the structure of a state other than studying the legal framework it is governed by. Naruto also had his own personal interest in legal studies, and he could dare say that he was quite well versed with the concept and how it worked, having been the Hokage.

Being the leader of your own military village required extensive legal knowledge, and a grasp of the rules used to administer it, after all. Although he had to admit, Naruto's interest lied far more in breaking said rules, but that was a different matter altogether.

He dropped his bag down to his usual seat near the back of the classroom, just beside a large window. This seat was very useful for a wide range of activities. They included, but were not limited to, sleeping, day dreaming, pretending to pay attention, subtly flirting with some of the newer female teachers and tinkering with highly explosive paper tags safely out of the reach of the strict eyes of the professors. Simple things like that.

The girl sitting in front of him, Wendy was a chubby, self-deprecating girl who essentially functioned in a manner that air did. That is to say, she managed to lurk around everywhere without bringing any attention to herself. It was not because of Wendy's unparalleled skills in stealth.

No, it was because she was very self-conscious and shy.

Also, she probably was the only girl in the whole college who Naruto got along with. Naruto appreciated that kind of presence, it was the least bothersome to deal with. She was the first girl he had met in the college on his first day, and knowing nothing about how colleges worked, Wendy had been a major help. Although, she had been highly suspicious of some of the simpler stuff that Naruto had no idea about, they had befriended each other quickly and she had just gotten used to the fact that he could be unusually strange at times.

Class hadn't started yet when Wendy turned her head back and looked at Naruto with her eyebrows raised.

Naruto raised his own eyebrows and stared right back at her.

After about 30 seconds, he gave up and asked, "What?"

"You hear about that new hot substitute teacher who'll be taking over our classes during the first period?" She asked after putting on a little show of looking proud of her victory in their little staring contest.

Naruto shook his head, and asked, "Guy or girl?"

Wendy rolled her eyes, "Why would I be telling you this if she was a guy?"

Naruto looked at her with an inquiring look, "And why are you telling me this even is she's not a he?"

"So you don't try to flirt with her in the middle of class, obviously."

Naruto looked offended and put his head between his hands, pretending to sleep on his desk.

"Where have you been anyways? I know you don't have the best attendance record, but this was quite a long disappearance, even for you." Wendy asked poking his unruly blonde hair with her finger.

"Well, at least I haven't been doing this!" Naruto said as he took his head off the desk while holding up his phone, which displayed a tweet of Wendy's on it. It read:

_"No more self-deprecating tweets," I whisper fatly._

Wendy went red and promptly looked ahead. Naruto grinned. She wouldn't be annoying him for quite a while now. As he prepared to enter a state of brief hibernation, the door to the class opened and in walked a tall, curvaceous woman with long red hair and purple eyes.

She smiled sweetly.

"Good morning class," she said, in the same husky tone Naruto heard the night before.

The boys of the whole class were paralyzed, their mouths hung open and their limp tongues out as they drooled over their laptops and textbooks on their desks.

The woman seductively grabbed a boy's chin who was sitting on the front seat and pushed it upwards, closing his gaping mouth. She then continued, "Since your regular professor will be absent for a while, I will be taking over Emerging International Principles today as a substitution teacher."

She was wearing a short, tight black pencil skirt that exposed her creamy, long legs as she sat on the professor's desk, one knee over the other and continued, "You all may call me Dite. Or ma'am. I don't really have any preferences."

"How does babe sound?" A male voice shouted from somewhere in the middle of the seated students, and the whole class broke out in light laughter, with the substitution teacher laughing along.

Meanwhile, Naruto's mind was a racetrack for various thoughts that were zooming around in his head.

'_She could just be trying to get close to me, but I don't think that's it,' _He thought to himself, and then reached a realization.

'_She's here for answers.' _

His actions the previous night were bound to have put the pretty red-head into quite the interesting flurry of questions.

After introductions were done and she had established a light rapport with the class, she started, "So, we will be having a short introductory session where I will be briefly familiarizing you about the principle we'll study about today, which is: Responsibility to Protect. It is also casually referred to as the R2P, which is an emerging global political commitment endorsed by all UN Member States. Is anyone already familiar with the principle and would maybe wish to enlighten the class?"

No hands were raised, except Wendy's.

But the teacher was far more interested in the smiling blonde looking right at her behind Wendy.

"Perhaps, you would wish to try and answer?" She asked while walking over to Naruto's desk, hips swaying while she completely ignored Wendy's raised upright hand.

Wendy muttered, "Bitch," softly in light annoyance.

As she crossed desks to make her way towards the last row, every male's heads turned in perfect symphony, eyes glued to the substitute professor's posterior.

She put her fingers on Naruto's desk and raised an eyebrow.

Naruto sighed. He did not know why she was back here again. The fact that she had asked the class to refer to her as Dite all but confirmed his suspicions that the woman was in fact Aphrodite, the Greek Goddess of Love.

From what he had heard and read, Aphrodite rarely extended relations to anything more than one night stands. Approaching him again went quite against what he had assumed Aphrodite's nature to be. It wasn't a coincidence that Aphrodite was his professor. Whatever her motives might be for returning, he would do his best to find out what they were.

Or maybe he was just overthinking, and she had loved the Naruto slice way too much to resist a second serving.

**"Be wary, kid. You know nothing about what these Olympians want of you. It wouldn't do if you were careless and ended up landing yourself **_**and**_** me in a mess that is hard to get out of."** Kurama warned, set off by the reappearance of the beautiful goddess.

_'I know, furball. You need not lecture __me__ on wariness. Giving any hints that I suspect something wrong would only motivate them to be more careful, which would only make things harder for us. Although it does seem that she doesn't care whether I realize it's her or not.' _

Aphrodite's eyebrows arched even further, and she reiterated her question.

Naruto just sighed again and replied, "It is an international commitment where the states' are obliged to employ protection against unexpected or undesirable events that jeopardize their people's safety and expose them to the risk of human rights violations."

"Precisely correct. And what would be the result, of such an unexpected event when protection is not employed?" She asked, now sitting on his desk, her soft thighs inches away from his face.

Naruto looked confused, "Well, an unexpected event will lead to an expected outcome, obviously, which in this case would be serious violations of human rights."

"Precisely correct, again. You're quite smart. So what should one do, when this expected outcome doesn't take place after an unexpected event during which no protection was used?" Aphrodite asked again, this time with emphasis.

_'Ah, so that is what this is about.'_

**"What is it?"** Kurama asked out of curiosity. He had been listening to the conversation, but most of it was going over his head.

_'C'mon furball, I know you're smarter than that. She's asking why she isn't pregnant after the unexpected events of the previous night.'_ Naruto grinned, and Kurama let out a loud laugh.

**"And here we were, all but drowning in our paranoia."** He managed to say and let out another throaty laugh.

_'Your paranoia. Not mine.'_ Naruto corrected smugly and then looked at the sexy teacher sitting on his desk.

"Well, in such cases, one should just place their faith in the other and their capabilities to prevent such expected outcomes even without protection." The blonde said with a cheeky grin.

Aphrodite was more confused than ever, and then voiced a genuine question, "Would this then hint at the other's impotency in producing these expected outcomes?"

Kurama all but roared with laughter again in Naruto mind.

**"The Great Seventh Hokage…of the Village Hidden in The Leaves…t-the only living True Sage in the World…Naruto fucking Namikaze is **_**impotent.**_**"** Kurama said between laughs, and then burst out laughing once again.

Naruto sighed in pain, already predicting the embarrassing insults that Kurama would direct at him in the future from this singular event. He looked at the goddess on his desk with his eyebrow twitching frantically.

"No. Hell no. The only thing it hints at is the ability of the other to decide whether they want these expected outcomes to be produced or not."

Aphrodite was the pure epitome of confusion by now. Apart from the Olympians and some other select gods and goddesses, she knew of no other people who could control whether or not their gamete would produce an heir or not. Being the goddess of love, she precisely knew when her ovulation cycle was, and her 'fertile window' had been very open, so to say.

She did not want a kid from Naruto, but it had come as quite the surprise to her when she realized that she wasn't going to get pregnant to begin with.

She voiced her doubts again, "And how would one come about with acquiring these abilities?"

"If it was such common knowledge, then any sort of protection wouldn't be required in the world to begin with." Naruto replied with that annoying grin of his. Some jutsus were just way too useful, such as the No-Pregnancy No Jutsu. The bell rang right on cue a second later, signaling the end of the introductory session.

Aphrodite huffed with a cute pout and made her way out of the class, the boys heads' turning in perfect sync, following the swaying hips of their new professor once again as she walked out.

As soon as she was out, their heads snapped to Naruto, wondering what the hell had just transpired.

But Naruto had something else to focus on, as the sensation that he was being watched returned. He had initially credited that to Aphrodite who might have been watching him as well, but the fact that the sensation was still there as the goddess was walking right out the door bore proof against that line of thought.

That was when he came to realize that Aphrodite might not even had any intention to be spying on him, and might just have been after him for sex. It made quite a lot of sense when he thought about the myths surrounding her, which generally started with her wanting to have sex with someone and ending with her having sex with that someone. Well, there was also the part of the person she had sex with facing the consequences of the intercourse, which usually tended to be quite unfavorable for the said person. But we won't talk about that.

Recognizing that Aphrodite was not the threat here, and might not even have the potential to be a threat, he decided to focus on what could.

When he had previously felt the sensation on a busy New York road, he hadn't been able to exactly determine where it stemmed from, his senses hampered by the tall buildings and the noise of the morning traffic. Now that he was sitting in a quiet college classroom, he could pinpoint the exact location of whatever was watching him.

And as he turned his head to look out the window and towards the little sugar maple tree outside the window, he was surprised to find an owl seated there.

Even more curious than the presence of a little owl in New York City, was the uncanny manner in which it was staring right at him.

"Should I suppose you've got a letter from a magic school for me?" he said to himself softly.

The owl just tilted its head, as if it did not find the blonde's joke funny.

A little creeped out, Naruto muttered, "I'll, uh, just leave you to it then."

As the day passed, no matter where he went, he could feel the small avian's eyes on him at all times. At the end of the day, he was so annoyed that he was seriously contemplating bloody murder. Even if it was just a bird.

A few minutes before the last period was to come to an end, deciding that he'd had enough, Naruto pulled out a senbon from the inner layer of his shirt sleeve and flicked it at the owl in a quick, unnoticeable, fluid motion.

The senbon sailed through the classroom window towards the tree on which the owl was perched upon, softly embedding itself in the owl's feet. A split second later, the bird dropped from the branch it was on, unmoving. Paralyzing with senbons never got old.

He was going to wait for a few minutes for the day to be over, and hidden from everyone, he would've gone and picked the bird up to examine if there was something wrong with it or if he could find some sort of clue as to why he was being watched. But surprising him yet again, the owl's body started glowing in a dim, yellowish glow and its body slowly faded away into nothingness.

**"Welp kid, that's too bad."** Kurama commented.

_'True, but at least now we know that it was not a normal owl. There was a divine hand behind this.'_

**"A divine hand is a possibility, as is the hand of something more sinister."**

_'Why do you __insist__ on being so negative, dammit?'_ Naruto cursed in his mind, earning himself a grin from his tenant.

Now that Naruto knew that the owl was not some brain-dead avian hell-bent on annoying the shit out of him and had a more supernatural nature, he could annoy Chiron into providing him the information about who could've been behind the strangely-observant owl.

His irritation at being monitored was sort of an acquired shinobi personality perk. No ninja can sit still knowing that someone is watching them.

**"You intend on going back there?"** Kurama asked with a raised eyebrow.

_'Yes, I don't see a reason of why I shouldn't.'_ Naruto replied as he packed up his bag and got up to leave the college. The bell had rung and the dispersal had begun.

**"That place is growing on you,"** Kurama said in a warning tone, **"You know as well as I do that involving yourself deeper will have adverse consequences."**

_'There you go with the negativity again.'_ Naruto sighed as he ran a hand through his golden locks, _'Besides, when have we ever been the people to step back because of probable 'adverse consequences'?'_

Kurama said nothing, but a smile could be seen gracing his vulpine features as he prepared to slumber once more.

* * *

Naruto emerged on the back of Sasuke from the shadow of a tree just outside the Camp borders, since the hellhound seemed to be unable to get through them.

As Sasuke sniffled with his tail limply fallen down in the utmost expression of sadness, Naruto took some pity in his unusual companion, "It's okay, Sasuke. Apparently monsters cannot go through the Camp borders."

Sasuke recoiled as if struck and lowered his head down, seemingly losing any conscious voluntary control of his tail as it hung there lifelessly.

"I think I made it worse, didn't I?" Naruto said apologetically with a sheepish smile, "You're not a monster, Sasuke. It was just a bad choice of words."

The hellhound looked up with eyes literally shining with hope.

"Still not getting you any cats to eat."

Sasuke sniffled even louder, shot Naruto a betrayed glare, and jumped back into a shadow.

* * *

As he made his way towards the Big House in the evening breeze, he could hear a tense shuffling of hooves from inside one of the rooms. Never being one to care much about things like basic courtesy and manners, Naruto walked from the Deck and entered the Rec Room, where traditionally the cabin meetings were held.

Inside, Chiron could be seen frantically pacing the room, tension and stress evident on his face. He didn't seem to notice Naruto at first, but when he did, he momentarily paused his pacing for a moment and just stopped. He stared a Naruto for around 15 seconds, and then seemed to light up like a Christmas tree.

Before he even opened his mouth to speak, Naruto beat him to it.

"Whatever brilliant plan you came up with in your head," he began, "Leave me out of it."

However, Chiron seemed unaffected by the blonde's statement, and continued to smile before he gestured to a little stool. Chiron knew Naruto enough by now to know that even if he pretended to not care, if it came to helping someone out, he would be one of the first people to hold out his hand.

Naruto sat with a raised eyebrow, resting his hands on the ping-pong table, as Chiron began with the annoying smile still on his face, "Welcome, Naruto. I wasn't expecting to see you here so soon."

Naruto rubbed his temples in a show of uncaringness as he replied, "Well, neither was I. I would've said it is a pleasure to see you again, if it was."

The old centaur looked at him, "I heard about your victory against Gration. You have been very helpful to Olympus, Naruto. The gods might now show it, or know it, but Olympus is grateful." He said, his eyes gaining a mature, apologetic shade, perhaps for the gods who seemed to lack the word 'gratefulness' in their personality dictionaries.

The whiskered man shook his head slightly, "I don't do things for gratitude, old man. I do them because I want to."

Chiron nodded in understanding and turned around and started arranging some of the bronze shields laid down on a table in the corner, "Very well, then. So to what do I owe your visit to, then?"

"Well, there was a certain matter relating to a certain event, which has left me terribly confused," Naruto began, and then continued hesitantly, "A certain event that I feel your expertise in Greek mythology might shed light on."

"So you need my help?"

Naruto hesitated again, as if what he was going to say was physically straining his larynx in forming the words, and he just said, "Yes."

There had been a time when asking for help came naturally to Naruto, but after being alone for countless decades, you get used to rolling on your own, and recognizing that you cannot do something on your own becomes something quite difficult to admit.

Chiron, without turning back, said, "Practically, I am Greek mythology as well. However, something being a myth implies that it has a high probability of being false. So please, refer to it as Greek history."

Chiron might be a horse-human hybrid, but he was still a teacher, Naruto reminded himself. He said in an exasperated tone, "Yes, call it whatever you want to. I still need your help regarding a little something."

Chiron turned back around to face the blonde and trotted a few steps over to him, "Very well then. Ask away."

"Well, there was this certain little owl…" Naruto began, and told him of the events surrounding the strange owl.

As Naruto had been telling the story, Chiron's smile seemed to be getting wider by each passing second.

Naruto's eyebrow was simultaneously increasing its twitching pace as well, "Remember a joke, old man?"

Chiron's smile widened still and his eyes glinted in a dangerous manner, "It would seem that I have exactly the answer you're looking for, Naruto."

It was the perfect plan, and Naruto had arrived at the perfect time. He had been guilty about sending the Athena kids on that quest from before he even sent them, but you could not just refuse a quest demanded by an Olympian herself. He knew there was something off about it, despite its seeming simplicity for one belonging to the Athena cabin. The three he had decided on sending were practically the best of the bunch, and yet Chiron was not sure if they were ready.

And now it had been over eight days since they had returned. Going by the plan Chiron had initially formulated with the three, they should've been back in just four. Chiron's gut said that something had gone horribly wrong, something that he had anticipated but disregarded. And now the guilt of the fact that he might as well have sent the children off to their graves because of this disregard was eating away at his old, fragile heart.

He had been desperately trying to decide who to send as a rescue backup team and had been failing to come up with a name other than Luke Castellan, someone who was away on his own quest for the Golden Apple of the Hesperides. Then barging in through the door came Naruto Namikaze.

And what's even more interesting, was the fact that he seemed to be on Lady Athena's radar.

This was the perfect opportunity to manipulate the blonde, or gently push him in the right direction as Chiron would like to call it, into agreeing to go as the backbone of the backup squad.

Chiron had heard of Naruto's unparalleled skill in the fight against Gration. Despite having seen him literally manhandle Artemis's Lieutenant, he was still quite surprised by the news, since fighting a huntress, regardless of how skilled said huntress is, was still exponentially easier than fighting a giant of the Gigantomachy. But he wasn't complaining. He knew the kid had a good heart.

And what's more was the little inkling in the back of his head that the blonde still had a lot to surprise them with.

He was the perfect man for the job, and it was the perfect time to get him to do it.

Naruto interrupted his musings, "Well then, out with it, old man. I don't have time to be sitting around and looking at you clean bronze plates."

Chiron chose not to comment on the misinterpretation of the shields as plates, but rather said, "It would seem that you've managed to intrigue Lady Athena as well. The owl that you describe? It is a symbol of the Olympian Goddess of Wisdom."

Naruto's eyebrows furrowed in thought, as he muttered to himself, "Maybe not so wise if she's intent on setting me off."

"Could you repeat that, Naruto? I couldn't quite hear you." Chiron asked politely, but Naruto just shook his head, "It was nothing, old man."

Chiron nodded before beginning again, "And if you really did throw a pointy – What did you call it again? A senporn?"

Naruto looked at Chiron as if he had grown a second head. Like having a horse for half your body wasn't weird enough.

"How do you even go from senbon to…No, wait. Never mind. I wouldn't even want to think about the kind of porn you might like to watch." Naruto commented.

Chiron looked confused for a moment, "What is porn?"

Naruto just shook his head in disappointment and grave sympathy, but gestured to Chiron to put the topic off.

"Right. So, if you really did attack the owl with a 'senbon', it would be safe to assume that Athena might not be very pleased with you." The centaur said, looking carefully at Naruto, who seemed largely unaffected by his words.

"Careful, Naruto. Athena is someone you would NOT want as an enemy." Chiron warned.

Naruto nodded, before getting up from the stool and stepping away from the ping-pong table and said, "Perfect. Thank you for your enlightening words, and your help. Just one more question, and I'll be well on my way."

The centaur trotted a few steps towards the stool, as he gestured to Naruto to go on.

"Where might I find, this…Athena?"

Chiron had been expecting exactly this. Hiding his internal glee, he said, "Locating an Olympian can be difficult, Naruto. One place you're certain to find them is Mount Olympus…"

"Isn't that on top of the Empire State Building?" Naruto interrupted, voicing his query. From what he had learned so far by involving himself in the unknown, hidden aspect of the divine powers governing the world, they each had various duties and responsibilities. They usually roamed around the earth but were also capable of existing at multiple places at the same time. Their central seat, or rather headquarters of sorts, was Mount Olympus.

Apparently, it was what bound their 'essence' to the earth, and the modern civilization, and kept them from fading, but that was one concept Naruto had a lot of trouble warping his head around and still couldn't quite comprehend.

It was supposed to be suspended over the Empire State Building. How a whole mountain just floats above one of the tallest buildings of the world unseen by almost everyone, you ask? Well, that was another concept that went right over his head.

Chiron nodded, "Indeed, it is present over the Empire State Building, which makes it ridiculously easy to get to if you know how. But going to Mount Olympus, uninvited and barging in onto the Olympian's Palaces would surely have adverse consequences of its own."

Naruto sighed, "So it's a no-no?"

Chiron affirmed, "Yes. It is a 'no-no'."

"Then how do I find her?"

Chiron turned around and walked over to a window over-looking the Camp, his hooves making a distinct 'clip-clop' sound as they hit the wooden floor. This was going exactly how he had wanted it to go.

"Well, there is a certain place where you'll surely encounter Lady Athena at this point in time. However, say you do find her. What'll you do then?" Chiron asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Express my displeasure at being watched and then ask her the reason for the same, of course," Naruto shrugged as if it was the most obvious thing ever, and then asked, "Where is this certain place, again?"

"Even if you do find her, I doubt she'll provide you with answers just because you demand them from her. And the Goddess of Wisdom is not as…lenient as Dionysus, Naruto. Most other Olympians aren't, and they won't take kindly to being teased."

Naruto sat back down on the seating stool and dropped his head on the ping-pong table, asking with a defeated sigh, "What do you propose I do then?"

Even though he had a pretty good inkling as to why he was being supervised, he still had to set down a few ground rules if he was to co-exist with these divine beings. One such essential rule was respecting his privacy.

And anyways, he was never one to leave the ball in his court. The Goddess of Wisdom was a score ahead of him since she had him continuously supervised. It was time to return the favour. And Naruto tended to not pass the ball, but rather tear through the net and walk into the other court himself to firmly deposit the ball so it wasn't thrown again.

"Resorting to the more traditional methods would be needed. A favour for a favour. Aid the Goddess in some manner, and she'd be obliged to answer any questions you have for her. There is no other Olympian more responsible about their obligations than Lady Athena." Chiron said.

Naruto lifted his head from the ping-pong table to look at Chiron and asked, "And how do I do that?"

Chiron looked away from the window, and towards Naruto, "There was a certain quest, given by Lady Athena herself, to retrieve a certain artefact for her. I sent three of her most capable children to complete the quest over a week ago, but they have yet to return."

Naruto did not miss the guilt evident in Chiron's voice as he continued, "I fear that something ill might have befallen them. Venture to the location of the quest, and see it through. Rescue the kids if they need rescuing and provide back-up if they need it. The goddess will be indebted to you if you succeed. And the island where the artefact is located, you'll surely meet Lady Athena there, or communicate with her in some form. And you'll get whatever answers you seek."

Naruto couldn't help but control his smile at the cunningness of the old centaur, "Very smart, Chiron. Get me to effectively clean up after your mess while masterfully exploiting what I plan on doing."

Chiron was afraid for just a moment that the blonde might refuse to see the quest through as he saw Naruto think upon what he had said.

"Very well, then. I will run this little errand for you, but god help the entire centaur race if I haven't had a nice chat with Athena at the end of this."

And just like that, his fears were washed away. He had hit two birds with one stone. Naruto going on the quest would mean that both the artefact would be recovered and the kids would be saved as well. All that was left to do was pair Naruto up with two others to aid him in his quest, since Naruto's knowledge about Greek mythology was questionable at best.

Since it was an Athenian quest, being a child of Athena would be an obvious prerequisite to qualify as a potential team member. No matter how hard he tried to come up with a different name, Annabeth Chase was undeniably the perfect choice. Chiron was aware that she was way too young to be going on a quest, but even at the age of 10, she was one of Athena's brightest, and the most well-versed with Greek mythology and history.

And the other member would obviously have to be a satyr, for their excellent sense of smell might come in handy at any given point in the quest. But the problem was that there was only one other satyr available at Camp. Since it wasn't the holidays or the summer vacations, only the year-round kids were present and all satyrs except one were out searching for demigods to bring back to the Camp.

And that was Grover Underwood.

Chiron was acutely aware of how young both Annabeth and Grover were to go on this quest. He had no doubts of their ability, but he did not want a repetition of what had occurred just eight days ago, when he had sent three demigods who weren't ready on the same quest.

And yet, just the fact that Naruto would be present along with Annabeth and Grover was enough reassurance for him. Chiron was sure, or at least surely hoped, that the blonde would not let any harm come to both of them. He also did not want them weighing Naruto down, but he had no choice but to send them along with him, since without Annabeth's knowledge of mythologies and Grover's prowess in tracking and sniffing things out, the tall youth would essentially be crippled.

"Before I set out on this 'quest'," Naruto asked, "What is it about?"

Chiron arrived at his decision, and said, "I'll be pairing you up with two others. They'll brief you about the quest on the way to the location of the artefact. Best we not waste any more time."

Naruto's eyebrows rose, "Two others?"

Chiron explained, "In quests, knowledge of mythology and history and how to distinguish between them, is very important, since over half of the time demigods come across enemies that have already been defeated in the past. As such, knowing history reveals some essential key weaknesses many foes have, and helps solve many puzzles."

Naruto nodded in understanding, "And since I don't know jack-shit about Greek myths, you'll be pairing me up with two history guides?"

Chiron started trotting out the door of the Rec Room with Naruto following after him, and said, "Not two. Your other teammate will be a satyr, because of their innate connection with nature, and their hypersensitive tracking abilities and sense of smell."

Naruto nodded in appreciation. It was a good team dynamic. It looked like he might as well be able to have some fun doing this tedious assignment.

"Get everything you need, Naruto, and meet me at the northern-most edge of Zephyros creek, where it meets the Long Island Sound in two hours. That is where your quest will begin."

Naruto nodded, and begin to walk towards the exit of Camp Half-Blood. As he plucked a strawberry from the strawberry fields, annoying a nature spirit, he couldn't disregard the certain feeling of nostalgia as he thought back to the days when he used to receive his own missions from his Hokage.

* * *

The backpack that he carried to college was slung over his shoulders, but it wasn't filled with books this time. Everything that a traditional shinobi needed on their travels was packed in. The essentials were there : the scrolls, seals, kunai and shuriken. Other handy items such as a little bottle of sake and a Nintendo Switch were also put in the bag.

Some items such as the Kubikiribōchō that just would not fit in the backpack were sealed. He still had no idea why he carried the sword that belonged originally to Zabuza though. It was fun to swing a sword larger than you were sometimes, but he much preferred smaller blades, such as his Endeixi.

Naruto almost felt like the hyperactive 13 year old Naruto Uzumaki as he had packed for his first mission outside Konoha, to the Land of the Waves. Even though he had only packed two cups of instant ramen instead of ninja gear, it still counted as readying up for a mission, he remembered wistfully

How much the times had changed since then. How much he had changed.

The leaves crunched under his feet as he walked the dirt path through the Camp's woods towards the junction where the creek met Long Island Sound, and where Chiron and his teammates were supposed to be waiting.

When he stepped out the forest and into the little shore, he had expected to see two demigods around his age, possibly quite buff and carrying all sorts of ancient Greek weapons, shields, and deadly artefacts.

Instead he got two kids that barely reached his shoulders. One girl he recognized as the one who had escorted him to Argus' van when he was leaving from the Camp a while before. She was carrying a bag a little too large for her and was wearing a few extra layers of clothes, and a leather cuirass over all of it, so she looked like an armored baby snowman. Despite this, her careful and observant eyes seemed way more mature than any girl who looked to be around 10.

Then there was the goat. All he was carrying was a little set of small reed pipes that were stuffed into the back pocket of his pants, his presumably hairy behind on prominent display as he bent over to try and stuff his hooves into some sneakers.

Chiron was standing right beside him, watching with amusement. As soon as he noticed Naruto approaching, he trotted on over to him and tried to introduce him to the kids.

"Annabeth, Grover, this is Naruto."

Chiron was going to say something else but Annabeth beat him to it, "Yes, we know Chiron. He'll be leading our quest."

The way she said 'our quest' displayed some amount of pride and happiness in those stormy eyes of hers.

But Chiron was ever-present to keep that in check, "Now, Annabeth. As I have told you before: It isn't 'your' quest. Its Naruto's quest, and you'll just be there to observe and help Naruto out when he asks for it. Only, when he asks for it."

At the side, Grover was doing a poor imitation of Chiron while mouthing exactly what he was saying in a manner that suggested he had already heard it multiple times before. Chiron's eyes drifted over to where Grover was standing and imitating him and upon realizing that he had been caught, the satyr bleated loudly and then coughed in embarrassment , and went back to trying to stuff his hooves into the shoes.

Naruto's eyes twitched in mild-irritation, "So I get an armored Inuit and a goat that thinks he's funny. Yep, this was all that I needed for my first and supposedly dangerous quest."

Annabeth looked mildly irritated at being called an Inuit and Grover just blushed in embarrassment and tried to look as if he hadn't heard what Naruto said.

Chiron meanwhile, had been expecting this, "Don't you go around questioning me, young man, with your inferior knowledge of Greek mythology and no perception of what you might face on your quest."

Naruto looked offended, as if doubting his awareness about Greek myths was some sort of a personal insult, "You don't get to say that, old man. You don't know what I know and do not know! I might as well have done some homework and researched a bit about your mythology!"

Chiron wasn't one to back down, and neither was he used to having his decisions questioned, so he decided to actually test the blonde's claim, "All right, then. Who was Zeus's father?"

Naruto sputtered incoherent words as if trying to form a meaningful word that made no sense and just ended it with a "eus."

Then he made a show of looking quite smug, and said, "See? I know it after all."

"That made no sense whatsoever!" Annabeth shouted in exasperation, "And you even got the last part wrong!"

Naruto just scratched his head, "I thought all Greek names end with something like 'ius' or 'eus'?"

Annabeth face palmed and decided to enlighten the blonde, who seemed well around a foot taller than her, "His name is Kronos. So it technically ends with 'os'."

Naruto gritted his teeth, "Damn! I was so close too!"

Chiron looked on in amusement, and said, "You get along pretty well already. But evidently, you don't know 'jack-shit' about Greek mythology as you previously put it. So, Annabeth will be tagging along with you because she is almost like a walking encyclopedia."

Naruto looked at both of their faces, "You guys haven't heard of Google?"

Both of them looked at him as if he was some sort of a talking monkey who had no sense of civilization.

"What? I come across a monster I don't know about, I just type in its name in Google followed by a little 'how did it die in Greek myths', and bam! I'm good to go."

Chiron nodded in agreement as if he was completely convinced by what Naruto was saying, and said, "That's all well and good. But cell phones are like portable beacons to monsters. Nothing warns a monster about a demigod presence better than a cell-phone signal. So no demigod carries them around, and neither should you, because your cellphone could be dangerous because of its proximity to Annabeth and Grover."

Naruto sighed in disappointment and muttered, "So does this mean I won't be able to Netflix while on the quest?"

Chiron nodded and then said, "Also, how do you propose to find a signal in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea?"

Naruto looked surprised.

"We're going to the Mediterranean?!"

Annabeth looked at him in mild surprise, and then her eyes shifted over to Chiron in an inquiring look.

The centaur just nodded to her and muttered a small, "Yep, that's why you're going. He has no idea about the quest, and you need to hold his hand though it."

Naruto still wasn't over his initial shock, "Isn't that something like 20,000 kilometers away?"

Annabeth sighed, "No, it's not that far. That is literally half of Earth's total circumference. It's just around 7,945 kilometers away from here." She said, sounding quite pleased with herself, as if knowing that particular bit of information was an achievement to her.

"That's still pretty far if we're going by this!" Naruto exclaimed as he pointed to the boat on the shore. It was a classic wooden rowboat with a modified propeller attached to it, so it seemed like some sort of a make-do motorboat. And it was completely wooden too. The thing didn't look like it could last 40 kilometers, and he was pretty sure they wouldn't make it to their destination with the thing still intact, assuming they even made it at all.

"That's technically not even a damn propeller! It's just a few blades of table fans taped together!" He said in exasperation, "And they've not even used the blades of the same fan!" He pointed over to the one mismatched propeller blade, which was a rusty orange, as opposed to the other two that were a shade of blue almost completely faded due to corrosion.

"Worry not, it still works pretty well," Chiron said. And what's worse was that he seemed _proud_ of the motorboat they'd managed to assemble, "The Hephastheus kids rarely work on a budget this low, but just pour a little Greek fire into the pipe on the bow of the boat and turn the knob beside it, and it wheezes off like the wind."

Naruto's head was in his arms by now and he looked close to sobbing, "Fine," he said, almost breaking down, "I'll go with the crappy boat. I'll even bear the smart-ass. But why is the goat going with us? I mean, I myself have decent tracking skills."

"Grover is a crucial part of your team. As a satyr, he has a pure and deep connection to Nature, and apart from his uncanny ability of sensing things and tracking them, he has various other talents that are bound to be useful." Chiron said in a manner that reminded him of the Third Hokage when he would give Team 7 missions and coach them about team cooperation.

"Do those talents include the inability to wear shoes?" Naruto asked with his eyes on the still struggling Grover, trying to fit his hooves in his shoes. Grover bleated upon realizing everyone had gone silent and were looking at him, and asked timidly, "What?"

Naruto shook his head, and decided to play with the young goat, "So, I was just asking Chiron whether you're fitting your hooves into your shoes or your shoes on your hooves?" He said with a puzzled look on his face.

Grover had never been asked such a deep question. He lost himself in thought upon these unanswered questions of life while Naruto just looked on in amusement.

Chiron coughed to draw his attention towards him and get over the awkward silence, "So, you'll set out with Annabeth and Grover. She'll inform you about the details of the quest on the way so you don't waste much time here."

And that was how Naruto found himself pouring the greenish liquid that Annabeth called Greek fire from a vial into the metal pipe that jutted out from the bow of the boat and looked as unusual as a blob fish.

Initially the row boat had the speed of a snail and sailed even slower than what Naruto had expected it to be. Afraid that he might have to row a wooden boat over to a sea on the other side of the world, he had almost called the quest off. That was when Annabeth had told him to pour some Greek fire into the pipe.

Now they were speeding through the Long Island Sound so fast that Grover had already spilled his previous two meals into the water and over the side of the boat, although the puke itself seemed strangely metallic. He could swear he had seen a piece of tin with Coco ColaTM still on it, logo and all.

Everything outside the boat was a blur.

Now he was afraid they might hit a large rock and get turned into splotches of blood and muscles and die, since it was near impossible to manually control the rowboat. However, it seemed to change direction at will, and Naruto could not even see what they were crossing or where they were since everything outside was just a speedy blur, so he decided not to bother anyways.

Then suddenly Grover's timid voice piped up, "I've finally got it!"

Annabeth and Naruto looked at him quizzically, and she decided to voice their collective question, "What've you got?"

"The answer to Naruto's question!" He said excitedly, "I was fitting my hooves inside the shoes, and not the other way around!"

"Shut up, Grover." Annabeth and Naruto said in perfect synchronization with twitching eyebrows, making the satyr visibly deflate.

Yep, it was going to be one difficult journey, Grover thought as he promptly proceeded to puke his guts out over the edge of the boat again.

* * *

**There, all done. Drop a review and do let me know if you want me to have Naruto delve into these non-cannon quests or if you'd rather have me make him stick to strictly cannon flow of things.**

**Thanks for reading guys, Ja Ne!**


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